Hidden Path
by Allison Illuminated
Summary: "Prove me wrong." Shikamaru takes Naruto's declaration that he'll be the next Hokage seriously. Sometimes, the simplest validation is enough to change the world.
1. Prove Me Wrong

Prove Me Wrong

Allison Illuminated

::

 **Academy I**

::

Sometimes, the smallest push makes all the difference.

::

"I'm telling you, I'm gonna be the Hokage, dattebayo!"

Naruto Uzumaki had jumped up onto his desk and puffed out his chest, looking out proudly at his class of nine and ten-year-olds, but his proud grin failed when the entire class burst out laughing. "Fat chance!" somebody yelled; a crumpled up ball of paper hit the side of his head.

Spinning towards the thrower, Naruto zeroed in on Sasuke, his rival, who was resting his chin on his folded hands and looked utterly bored. Behind him, Sakura, Ino, and the rest of his fangirls were laughing uproariously, pointing at Naruto and jeering. "Sasuke-teme! I'll show you when I become Hokage!" he shouted, pointing at the Uchiha. Sasuke just sighed and slouched deeper in his seat. Another paper ball hit Naruto, and he whirled around the room looking for the culprit.

In the back of the room, Shikamaru watched the carnage unfold with crossed arms, watching the clock tick down to the end of the day. _Another long, pointless day of Academy. I just want to go home and watch clouds…_ Everyone in their academy class was slowly turning ten, so why couldn't they act more mature? Shikamaru knew everything in their textbooks for the year anyways. It wasn't like he stood to lose anything from his classmates being troublesome.

"Hey, hey, calm down! Naruto, get off the desk! Put that piece of paper down!" Iruka-sensei called, trying to calm the class down. The chuunin stood in the front of the room, waving his arms to try to regain the class' attention. It was no use:

"Ha! Naruto thinks he can become Hokage? No way!"

"I bet he's dead last!"

"I'll bet he won't even make chuunin!"

"I bet he won't even graduate Academy!" That was Ino, and Shikamaru shot a long glance at her. Since all three of the famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio had a child in their class, Shikamaru knew as well as anyone that Ino would likely be on his genin team someday. _Honestly, how annoying. If she doesn't like him, why does she bother acknowledging him all the time?_

Shikamaru didn't dislike Naruto, really. He was loud and annoying, sure, but the Naru heir had nothing against him. Besides, bullying other kids took far too much effort, so he had never joined in his class' collective animosity towards the boy.

 _I just want to go home and sleep…_

"What did you say about me?!" Naruto yelled at Ino, digging his heels in instead of returning to his seat.

Shikamaru groaned when Sakura stood up. _Now he's done it_. He had no idea what Naruto had done to the pink-haired kunoichi, but Sakura harbored the deepest hatred for him out of anyone in the class. "What _Ino-pig_ was saying is that nobody thinks you can become Hokage!"

"Shut up, forehead girl!" Ino shouted back, and the two girls started shoving at each other.

 _I think I'm getting a headache,_ Shikamura thought to himself. _The less I ever have to deal with Naruto and Sakura, the better._

Paper balls flew. Sakura and Ino fought. Naruto shouted at everyone in the room. Iruka tried to calm everyone down and failed. Sasuke's brooding deepened.

And some unfortunate soul accidentally hit Shikamaru with a paper ball.

 _Okay, that does it. I_ refuse _to sit through another hour of yelling before I can go home._ Slowly getting to his feet, Shikamaru groaned and called, "Hey, idiots, be quiet! You're giving me a headache!" Everyone stopped and looked at Shikamaru, who crossed his arms. "Honestly, why do you all have to be so troublesome? It's not like Naruto couldn't be Hokage, anyways." Having said his piece, Shikamaru slumped back into his seat, decidedly ignoring the looks of horror he was getting from half the class and the _pure awe and hope_ on Naruto's fa- nope, he was _absolutely not_ dealing with Naruto Uzumaki's issues.

At least Sasuke's fan club had been shut up. That was enough for Shikamaru, who sighed and allowed himself the slightest bit of vindication that Sakura looked like she had eaten a toad.

Honestly, being lazy took so much work, sometimes.

Iruka-sensei seemed to shake off Shikamaru's declaration and take advantage of the silence. "Alright, so before _that_ happened, we were talking about elemental affinities. Now, fire..."

Shikamaru tuned Iruka out and went back to watching the clock, unaware of the change he was about to make in two of his classmate's lives. Why would he think about that sort of thing, anyways. He knew exactly what he wanted; to lead an uneventful life with an average family in an average house, sleeping and watching clouds with no responsibilities, without all of the troubles the 'genius' labels others had always given him brought. In Academy, that dream always seemed so far away.

Sighing, he looked out the window at the clear afternoon sky. _Troublesome…_

::

"Bye, Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura frantically waved at Sasuke as he brushed past her, doing his best not to acknowledge his existence. When he had passed and was well on his way back to the Uchiha compound, she allowed herself to relax and sighed contentedly. _Sasuke…_

Sakura Harano lived a simple life. Sasuke was her crush, Ino was her rival, and Naruto was an idiot who could always use a good punch in his stupid whiskered face. She had wanted to be a shinobi for as long as she could remember, even when she was just a little kid living with civilian parents. Why…? Well, why didn't matter – she was at Academy and getting good grades, and that was what mattered. Besides, if she became a high-class kunoichi, then Sasuke would have to notice her!

She was so lost in her happy thoughts that she almost didn't notice when Shikamaru practically bumped into her, headed in complete disinterest down the road away from the academy. Sakura almost yelled at him, then sighed and let her scowl settle. _He doesn't care at all… Why does he even come to Academy if he doesn't want to be a shinobi? Stupid clan heirs._ She hated people like Shikamaru and Naruto, who never put in any effort to anything! And Naruto thought he could become Hokage?

Sakura crossed her arms and frowned at the Nara heir's retreating back. _Figures that_ he _agrees with that idiot._

 _Wait, is that the idiot?_

Sure enough, Naruto had just run up and hid behind a wall near where Shikamaru was walking, peering out just long enough to jump to the next cover. She facepalmed; _can he be any less stealthy? There's no way Shikamaru hasn't spotted him!_

For a moment, Sakura considered writing it off as Naruto being, well, Naruto, and go home. On the other hand…

 _"_ _It's not like Naruto couldn't be Hokage, anyways."_

Sighing, Sakura tensed then started running after her classmates. Something sparked inside her – she _didn't_ care about Naruto-baka or some lazy heir, absolutely not – no, she just wanted to know how anyone could be stupid enough to think that Naruto could, well…

The _why_ didn't matter. The _why_ never matter. Sakura pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on proving why she was the best kunoichi in class by not getting spotted.

::

Just as Shikamaru was about to turn down the quiet shady road that led to the Nara compound, Naruto stepped out of the shadows triumphantly and called, "Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru kept walking.

 _He's ignoring me!_ Naruto realized triumphantly. Running forwards, he jumped in front of the other boy and exclaimed, "Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru gave Naruto a look of complete disinterest. "I heard you the first time."

"I totally knew that, dattebayo!" Naruto gave him a broad grin and a thumbs-up, to which the Nara heir responded by walking past Naruto without a second glance.

 _But- wha…_ "Hey, where are you going?"

"Home. I have a headache and I have important business."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Important business. I could help! What is it?"

"Classified," Shikamaru threw over his shoulder.

Now Naruto was practically gaping. _I knew Shikamaru was cool, but classified business…_ "What kind of classified business?"

Sighing, Shikamaru turned around and looked at him, his tied-up hair swaying in the wind. "You aren't going to go away if I don't tell you, are you?"

"Huh?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'm taking a nap. S-class secret."

Naruto blinked as Shikamaru turned around and started walking away. _He's taking a… nap? So he- oh._ Fighting to keep the frown of disappointment of his face, he tried to puzzle out what a 'S-class secret' was. _I thought he really had a classified mission…_

Realizing that the other boy was leaving him behind, Naruto called, "Hey, wait!"

Shikamaru turned with a groan. "What?"

Naruto bit his lip, scuffing his foot against the dirt road. His plan had pretty much been to follow Shikamaru – now that he had caught him, he wasn't sure what to say. "I, um… do you- When you-"

"You want to talk about what I said in class," Shikamaru deadpanned, staring him straight in the eyes.

Naruto's eyes lit up, and he stood up straighter. _Man, Shikamaru is so smart!_ "You got it, dattebayo!" He grinned until he realized the other boy was just standing there, waiting for him to talk, and Naruto looked away. "Um, yeah, about that… Did you really mean it?" he asked, a quaver of uncertainty entering his voice.

"Yeah?" Shikamaru asked. "Why would I have said it if I didn't mean it?"

 _He meant it. He really meant it._

 _Somebody actually believes in me!_

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, pumping his fist into the air. "There's no way I won't be Hokage now!"

"Ugh..." Shikamaru groaned, pressing his fingers to his forehead.

"I'll be the strongest ninja in the entire village, dattebayo, and I'll have my face on the monument, and then Sakura-chan'll have to like me, and Sasuke'll have to admit I'm better than him!"

"Naruto."

"Oh, and you'll be a jonin, and you'll be awesome and I'll make you, um, super jonin!" Naruto exclaimed, fixing his attention on Shikamaru who had gone from looking annoyed to queasy at the word jonin. "Cause you'll be super strong and I'll be super strong and it'll be awesome, dattebayo!"

"Naruto!"

Naruto froze when Shikamaru shouted at him, flinching at the other boy's harsh tone. "Huh?"

"I never said you were going to be Hokage. I only said you _could_ become Hokage."

::

 _"I never said you were going to be Hokage. I only said you_ could _become Hokage."_

Hidden in the nearby bushes, Sakura's jaw dropped when Shikamaru interrupted Naruto's diatribe. _He… what?_ Her thoughts had been distracted by the fact that Naruto wanted to become Hokage so she would like him, and oh my god did she want to jump out of the bush and punch him, but Shikamaru's sharp statement had snapped her out of it.

Naruto's thoughts seemed to be following the same trajectory. "I don't understand," he said in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You could become Hokage. _Anyone_ could become Hokage, if they become strong enough," Shikamaru said, as if explaining was taking more effort than he could possibly expend. "But you're not a Hokage yet. You're not even a genin yet."

Sakura had never heard Shikamaru talk so much in her entire life. _Since when is he so… smart?_

Naruto tried to say something, but Shikamaru cut him off. "Do you even know how people become Hokage?"

"Uhhh..." Naruto's face turned red, and he looked at the ground.

Shikamaru sighed and shook his head. "The Hokage is the strongest ninja in the entire country. They have to conduct diplomatic relationships, organize missions, lead the village. And they have to do paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork."

A shade of doubt passed over Naruto's gaze. "So I'll become the strongest ninja!" he declared. "I'm already on my way, dattebayo! You'll see, everyone in Konoha'll respect me-"

"No. That's not how that works." Shikamaru fixed Naruto with a burning gaze that made both the blond and Sakura shrink back. "Dead last doesn't become Hokage. You spend all of your time playing pranks instead of learning how to do a proper jutsu. You will never become Hokage unless you work for it."

Sakura reeled in shock in the bush. Shikamaru agreed with her? _Exactly! He's dead last, he doesn't care!_ The evaluative glance she gave the Nara had her changing everything she thought she knew about the boy. _Huh, maybe Shikamaru isn't so bad after all._

Naruto staggered backwards, reeling at Shikamaru's words. "So you… you don't think I'm going to be Hokage?" he asked plaintively, on the verge of tears.

"Honestly, no. I don't care. This whole conversation has been troublesome." The words hit Naruto like an arrow to the chest, and his composure broke. Sakura felt a stab of anger… against Shikamaru? For Naruto? No, that didn't make any sense… Shikamaru sighed as he watched Naruto desperately try not to cry, and he shook his head. "But we'll see, I guess. Prove me wrong."

 _Prove me wrong._

 _"_ _Why would I ever want to date someone like you?" Sasuke asked her, his dark eyes meeting hers before he turned away indifferently. Nine-year-old Sakura had turned and run away in tears, leaving the last Uchiha behind her._

Hope bled back into Naruto's expression, then turned into determination. "I will," he murmured, almost to himself, then he looked up at Shikamaru. "I will, dattebayo!" he yelled, angrily wiping away at tears. "I'll become the strongest ninja, and then I'll be Hokage, you'll see!"

Shikamaru sighed once again; was he smiling? "Whatever." He turned away, then turned back. "Naruto."

"Yeah!" Naruto called as the Naru heir walked away. "I'll see you around, Shikamaru!" The blonde boy nodded to himself, something passing through his expression that Sakura couldn't even guess at, then ran off back into the main city.

Sakura sat in the bush for a moment longer in stunned shock. Whatever she had expected from that conversation, it hadn't been that. _But… they…_

Something didn't make sense. Against all of her better judgment, she jumped out of the bush and ran after Shikamaru. "Why?"

Shikamaru stopped short and crossed his arms, not bothering to turn around. "Why what?"

"Why did you say all of that?" Sakura asked, taking deep breaths after her short sprint. "You're, well, the lazy one! How can you talk about work 'n stuff like that?"

A gust of wind blew fallen leaves past the heads of the two classmates. Shikamaru paused, silent. "I know what I want, and I already have it. Why should I do more work than that? What's the point? People with ambition have to do actual work, or they never get what they want. That's Naruto. Thing is, he's stubborn enough to actually get there." Shikamaru looked back over his shoulder, and Sakura felt chills run down her spine. "And I knew you were in the bush the whole time."

 _He knew? You mean, I wasn't sneaky?_ By the time she yanked herself from her thoughts, Shikamaru was at the gate to his compound. Sakura's eyes widened, and she yelled, "Wait, but how-" The gate slammed shut with a metallic sound, and she flinched. "But he didn't answer all of my questions..."

 _Ambition, huh?_

Sakura was ambitious. She knew that about herself instantly, instinctively.

 _Prove me wrong._

"Actual work or I'll never get what I want, huh?" Sakura murmured to herself. "But I do actual work..." She was the top kunoichi, wasn't she?

Sasuke still wouldn't even look at her.

 _Is my ambition to date Sasuke? I work for that, don't I?_

 _Don't I?_

Lost in thought, Sakura wandered away from the Nara compound towards the civilian sector. For the first time in a long time, her life seemed more uncertain than she had thought, and that was _confusing_. Who knew things could be so complicated?

::

Shikaku looked up as his son entered the main house, quickly masking his frown. Setting the letter he was writing down on the table, he asked, "Shikamura, you're home later than expected. How was your day?"

Shikamura looked up at him and seemed to actually _consider_ his answer, which was enough to make Shikaku want to run to make sure his son hadn't burned the Academy down.

"Troublesome," was the answer Shikamura finally gave, already on his way to his bed.

Shikaku watched him go thoughtfully. "Troublesome indeed." _I wonder just what happened today..._

::

Ichiraku Ramen's lights peacefully glowed in the evening bustle. People rushed by the ramen stand, never giving a second thought to the orange-clad boy sitting on a stool inside, making circles in the hot broth with his chopsticks.

Naruto had left Shikamaru behind triumphantly, but his enthusiasm slowly faded as the weight of what the other boy had said began to sink in. _The strongest shinobi, huh?_ That was an easy enough answer; he would become the strongest. No, the question that he kept turning over in his head was way harder to answer: how?

"Hey, Naruto, what's wrong? My favorite customer never leaves his bowl untouched," Teuchi said, leaning over the counter to catch Naruto's attention.

"Oh, right, ramen!" Naruto let his worries slip away as he inhaled the entire bowl. "Another one, please!"

Teuchi smiled at him. "Right away!"

" _Dead last doesn't become Hokage."_

 _I thought I already am strong! Was I wrong?_ What did being strong even mean, anyways? Beating Sasuke? For all Naruto boasted he was stronger, he still knew Sasuke would probably beat him if it ever came to a real fight. _Hey, what kind of thought is that? Of course I could beat Sasuke-teme, I'm a way better ninja than he'll ever be!_

 _But you can't do a proper jutsu,_ a voice whispered in the back of his head, and Naruto slammed his forehead against the counter. _I need to stop thinking so much! No, wait, I- I'm so confused…_

Strong ninjas knew all the coolest jutsus. If he didn't know _any_ , what did that say about him?

"Maybe Shikamaru was right," Naruto mumbled, pulling back and staring at the ceiling.

"Right about what?" Teuchi placed another big bowl of pork miso ramen in front of Naruto, who immediately started eating.

"Shikamaru said he thought I could become Hokage if I work really hard!" the ninja exclaimed through a mouthful of food.

Ayame, Teuchi's daughter, looked up from the back of the stall. "That's great! Why are you so upset, then?"

Naruto frowned, looking down into his ramen. "He said I could be, but he doesn't think I'll manage it. He said he thinks I don't work hard enough."

"That's it? Just that you have to work to get the biggest job in Konoha?"

He dropped his gaze. "I don't know."

"Naruto, look at me." Teuchi knelt down to meet Naruto's eyes, a kind smile on his lips. "You want to be Hokage more than anything, right?" Naruto nodded uncertainly. "Well them, working to become Hokage should be easy then! As long as you're doing what you love, working shouldn't be hard at all."

Naruto looked up at Teuchi with wide eyes. "You mean like training and stuff?"

"Exactly."

"But the book stuff is so boring! I just wanna fight and learn how to be awesome!"

"Then forget about the books."

"Huh?"

Naruto frowned as Teuchi turned away from him and went back to attending the kitchen. "I was never any good with books either. If you train by moving around, then move around! All that matters if you want to get ahead is that you do more than they tell you, yeah?"

"I can do that?" Naruto asked in awe.

He got a non-committal shrug as an answer. "I mean, it's not like you're getting much from the books anyways, right?"

It was like a switch had been flipped in Naruto's head. Jumping off the bench, he threw money for his ramen down and yelled, "Thanks, Teuchi-san!" Thoughts of all the ways he was going to train ran through his head.

 _I do want to be Hokage, dattebayo! I'll show Sasuke and Shikamaru and Sakura-chan! I'll train and learn all the jutsus and become super strong!_

Teuchi watched Naruto run off with a knowing smile. "You think he'll actually train?" Ayame asked from behind him.

"Absolutely," the ramen store owner said with a firm nod, then turned back to the stall. There was ramen to make, after all.

::

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Sakura called as she pushed her front door shut, slinging her school bag off her shoulder and stepping into her house.

"Alright! Dinner in an hour!" her mom called back from the kitchen.

The Harunos lived in a respectable part of the civilian district on Sakura's dad's moderate income as a merchant. Sakura loved her parents; they were warm and caring, for all that they were wary of sending their daughter to become a trained killer. It had never been a choice, of course – Sakura had been dead-set on becoming a ninja from a young age, and in the end her parents had sent her to Academy.

Entering her room, Sakura turned on all the lights and dropped her bag, flopping backwards onto her bed. _What a day!_ She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so tired.

 _I can't believe Shikamaru saw me in the bushes…_

What was that conversation? Naruto was the dead-last, and Shikamaru was too lazy to even take tests!

How could Shikamaru be making so much sense?

"What do I want?" Sakura whispered to herself. "Sasuke..."

Was Sasuke her ambition?

"Yes." _No._

 _Oh, come on…_

Some rational part of Sakura that never seemed to come out during class stirred, and she rolled over onto her side with a sigh. "I wanna be a kunoichi _and_ date Sasuke," she told the stuffed animals at the foot of the bed, who stared back at the ten-year-old with knowing expressions.

 _Maybe Shikamaru was right… Maybe I do need to work more for that…_

Sakura didn't understand why Sasuke didn't want to date her. She was pretty, wasn't she? The last Uchiha would have to notice that eventually! There was no way she needed to work even harder for that! Sasuke just needed to _see_ her and then he would love her for sure. Sakura was certain of that.

Becoming a ninja, though… Sakura grudgingly admitted to herself that maybe she could work harder at her second goal. Academy was so hard to focus on when she could be looking at Sasuke! She scored high on tests, sure, but she still lost in spars to her classmates more often than she would like. In fact, there were some people she had _never_ beaten, like Chouji and Kiba and Shino… and Naruto… and Sasuke… and Shikamaru…

What if she wasn't strong at all? What if being the strongest kunoichi meant nothing in a room full of bloodlines and clan heirs?

Why shouldn't Sakura be able to beat them too?

The fangirl side of her mind reeled at that thought: _Beat Sasuke? Are you insane?_

 _Sasuke_ … That was it!

Sasuke was the strongest, most admirable person she knew. So, if Sakura wanted to become stronger, then who else would she try to be like but him?

 _Maybe I could even become stronger. If I did, he would_ have _to notice me!_

In that moment, a seed was planted in the ten-year-old's heart, one that wouldn't come to fruition for years. Unconsciously, Sasuke Uchiha became something more to her than just a romantic attraction. For now, though…

 _I'm not good at fighting, and we don't learn any of the cool jutsu moves until next year. What else can I get better at, throwing weapons?_ Sakura made a face at the thought of target practice; it was one of her least favorite parts of Academy. _What else can I do? I'll never get stronger if I don't…_

Sakura's gaze fell on the old bookshelf in the corner, loaded with children's novels and stories about ninjas. A flutter of recognition filled her chest; years of reading happily alone, before Ino and Academy and popularity had entered her life. Konoha had to have books about being a ninja somewhere that were better than her stuffy old textbooks, right? _Maybe real books will be more interesting than Academy…_

Smiling, Sakura resolved to go to the library the next day, content to push the matter out of her mind for now.

::

The next day, Naruto had a broad grin on his face as he strode into the Academy five minutes before class started, and he felt great! Waking up at six was a breeze. He had eaten two packs of instant ramen, then jumped right into his new super-secret plan to become Hokage! He already knew his senseis would never give him any jutsus, so he had gone to the Academy's small library and grabbed one of the jutsu scrolls they gave the eleven-year-olds. He had wanted to start with something bigger, but after reconsidering realized that he had no clue _how_ exactly to even use a jutsu, and decided just trying the easy ones first was the way to go.

Besides, even the easy ones were super cool! The Clone Technique, the Substitution Technique, and the Transformation Technique… Naruto could barely wait for the day to end so he could try them out!

"Good morning!" he cheered as he entered the classroom, jubilantly sitting down in his normal seat. Everybody else ignored him, which was fine by him; more time to think about how awesome all his cool new powers would be!

Yup, absolutely nothing would get in Naruto Uzumaki's way now!

::

"Whaaat?"

Naruto stared at the unrolled scroll before him in utter dismay. How could jutsu be so hard? There were all sorts of big fancy words he didn't understand, like 'chakra' and 'E-ranked' and 'foundational.' Even worse, the instructions didn't make any sense. _What does vi- visi- visialize the transformation even mean? Why can't they just write normal Japanese?_

"I thought you might have stolen that scroll."

Naruto jumped; Iruka-sensei was sitting on his windowsill! "Iruka-sensei, I- I didn't mean to steal it, that librarian's just a big meanie, dattebayo!"

His sensei waved him off and stepped into the apartment. "It's no big deal, I went ahead and checked it out for you. Just, tell me next time you want to read something, okay? I promise you I'll never say no."

Naruto's eyes shone. _He checked it out for me?_ "Okay!"

Iruka knelt down beside him on the floor and looked at the jutsu scroll. "Jutsu, huh? You know we're gonna talk about these next year, right?"

"I know, but I wanna learn them now! I gotta know all the justu if I wanna be Hokage, Iruka-sensei!"

"Hm..." For a moment, Naruto was afraid he had said the wrong thing, but then Iruka looked at him with an unfamiliar expression that made him feel warm. Was he smiling? "Well, then I think you're on the right track."

"Oh," Naruto whispered. His sensei thought he was doing good! That was… That…

That had never happened to Naruto before.

"Well, I don't see any reason to keep you from learning, so I'll be going now." Rising to his feet, Iruka walked back to the window and placed his foot on the ledge.

"Wait!"

The teacher turned back to see Naruto's head bowed. The boy trembled, his fists tightening around the edges of the scroll. "Naruto?" Iruka murmured, his heart going out to the orphan.

"I can't read it well 'nough," Naruto whispered, his eyes squeezed shut, trying not to cry in front of one of two adults who had ever treated him like a human being. "I don't know what it wants me to do."

Stepping back into the room, Iruka sighed and rested a gentle hand on Naruto's back. "You know, I don't have anything in particular to do this afternoon. Why don't we work it out together and see if we can't teach you some jutsu, okay?"

Naruto stared up at him with teary eyes and nodded. _Iruka-sensei…_ "O-okay."

Iruka-sensei nodded back and gave him a smile that meant the world to Naruto. "Alright, then. Why don't we start with the basics?"

::

Ino blinked, then blinked again.

Something about Sakura was… off. For starters, she wasn't staring at Sasuke. Second of all, _she wasn't staring at Sasuke_. If that wasn't enough to make her mind short-circuit…

"Are you reading a book?!"

Sakura looked up from the book, which she was, in fact, reading, and stared at Ino for a few seconds before reacting. "Huh? Oh, hi Ino."

Ino gaped as her rival went right back to reading without a second glance. _What? No Ino-pig?_ "Hey, don't ignore me! Since when do you read?"

Closing her book and rolling her eyes, Sakura said, "You've been to my house, idiot! Bookshelves?"

Ino opened her mouth to retort, her temper flaring, then let herself relax. An old memory floated through her head – sitting on the floor of Sakura's room, laughing together as they built up a fortress made of books. _I was wearing Sakura's headband, wasn't I?_ Sometimes, it was so easy to forget that they had been best friends for years, before Sasuke-kun had gotten in the way. _What? Sasuke-kun is_ never _in the way_! Still… "Oh. Right."

She sat down next to Sakura, who frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Forehead-girl."

"Hey!"

For the rest of class, Ino pretended to pay attention to the boring lesson about politics or some other boring nonsense she would never need to care about, but secretly watched Sakura out of the corner of her eye. The pink-haired girl wasn't even trying to pay attention! Instead, she was not-so-subtly reading under the table. Ino caught the book's title – _Chakra Mastery and Manipulation._

Why would Sakura want to know about that?

Ino puzzled over the question for a while. _Chakra… That's advanced stuff, isn't it? I thought we didn't learn it until we start ninjutsu next year!_ If Sakura was reading about it now, was she trying to get ahead to impress Sasuke?

Only one way to figure that out. Leaning forward, Ino tapped Sasuke's black-clad shoulder and whispered in her best 'sexy' voice (not that a ten-year-old had any idea what that sounded like), "Sasuke-kun, will you go on a date with me if I get better grades?"

Sasuke gave a long-suffering sigh and pressed his chin further into his folded hands. "No."

Unaffected, Ino leaned back in her seat with a self-assured smirk. _See! There's no way it could be to impress Sasuke!_ What was it, then?

Maybe Sakura just wanted to be a better ninja.

Ino glanced over at Sakura, who had her 'I will punch you if you break my concentration' face on, and smiled. _That must be it._ For some reason, she didn't mind the idea of her rival working hard for Academy, so long as it didn't get in between her and Sasuke-kun. As the heir of the Yamanaka clan, Ino had known her whole life that one day, she would learn her clan's technique – the Mind-Body Switch Technique. Sakura was civilian; she didn't have a clan or any special techniques she could learn. If she wanted to study hard to catch up with all the other clan heads, who was Ino to stop her?

 _If she makes one move towards Sasuke-kun, though!_

Ino made a fist and smirked, then tried to pay attention to the awful lecture. Sakura read undisturbed for the rest of class.

::

"Alright, give it a try!"

"Transformation Technique!"

Iruka-sensei grinned when Naruto's form disappeared into smoke and another Iruka-sensei appeared in his place. "I did it, dattebayo!" Naruto cheered, turning back to his normal form. "I did a jutsu!"

Nodding, his sensei gave him a warm smile. "You're a quick study, Naruto. I just wish you'd show this energy in class..."

"Books are boring!" Naruto declared, missing the sad glance that earned from Iruka. "'sides, I learn way more doing stuff anyways." He was going to be a shinobi! Why would he need books when he'd be having epic battles as Hokage with awesome Jutsu?

"You know you have to pass a written test to graduate, right?" Iruka asked dryly, earning himself a pout from Naruto. Iruka just shook his head. "Do you want to try the other two?"

"Substitution Jutsu!"

Two grubby fingers pressed against the back of Iruka's neck, and a textbook fell to the ground before him. He sweatdropped when Naruto snickered and exclaimed, "Got you!"

 _Am I even surprised?_ Iruka pulled Naruto off his back and tossed him back into the classroom. "Last jutsu!"

A flicker of doubt crossed Naruto's face. He made the hand signs and focused really hard on the weird glowy stuff he _knew_ was the 'chakra' Iruka-sensei, then-

An explosion blew both Naruto and Iruka off their feet in a burst of white smoke. Naruto crashed into a desk, wincing when his back immediately started hurting. _Ow… What happened?_ When the smoke cleared, Iruka staggered to his feet and stared at Naruto. "What did you _do_?" he asked in complete confusion.

"I, uh..." Naruto scrunched up his face as he tried to think about it. "I thought about making another me, right? And I found the weird chalky-"

"Chakra."

"-stuff and I made it go out where I wanted the clone-"

"Wait, wait, hold up." Iruka-sensei held up a hand and massaged his temples. "You _made it go out?_ "

Naruto cocked his head. "Yeah! Isn't it obvious? You're the teacher, Iruka-sensei, you're supposed to know these things! Anyways, I wanted it to go to where the clone was supposed to be but it didn't go! Why didn't it stay where I put it?"

Iruka's eye twitched. "Naruto, you're not supposed to push your chakra out of your body! That's shouldn't even be possible for a ten-year-old! You're supposed to just project an image of yourself, not make a chakra construct or something!"

O _h._ "That makes sense, dattebayo!" Naruto cheered, trying to stay optimistic even though _he had just failed and why was Iruka-sensei still trying to help him?_ "I'll definitely get it next time!"

"I believe you," Iruka said softly, and Naruto's eyes widened in surprise before he beamed at his teacher. _Nobody_ believed in him. For his sensei to say that… "Go home and try practicing that instead, okay?" He paused, then hastily tacked on, "Outside, though! Don't blow anyone else up!"

Small arms wrapped around Iruka's waist. "Thank you," Naruto mumbled, trying not to cry for the third time that week. He wasn't a cry baby, no way! He just… He was feeling so many new things he didn't understand, and it was a lot for a ten-year-old. _Stupid eyes._

Iruka ruffled Naruto's hair, smiling down at him. "Hey, tell you what. Why don't the two of us go and get ramen together somewhere, okay? I know that's your favorite food. It'll be my treat for mastering your first two jutsu."

The look of pure adoration he received was priceless, and Iruka let an exuberant Naruto lead him out of the Academy, thinking maybe being stuck with the blond-haired boy wouldn't be so bad after all.

::

Sheets of paper covered Sakura's bedroom floor. Her desk drawers were thrown open, highlighters were scattered at the foot of her bed, and a stack of library books rested in the center. In the center of the chaos, Sakura stared down at her work with her hands on her hips and a satisfied smile on her face. _Maybe I got a little bit carried away…_

A week ago, she had gone to the library and browsed the public shinobi section, looking for something interesting. Her eyes had settled on a book about chakra, a concept which their academy class had briefly touched upon but never really elaborated on. Sakura had checked it out on a whim, and very quickly figured out that chakra was _fascinating_.

Energy latent in every human, formed from physical energy and spiritual energy, which run through coils in the body called the Chakra Pathway System. Ninja were one of the few groups who could access their chakra and manifest it in the world through jutsu. All of that interested Sakura, but she knew the basics from academy already. No, what fascinated Sakura were all of the applications her books described.

Walking on _anything_. Healing impossible wounds. Infusing just about anything to give it additional properties. But, most of all, it was the passage at the beginning of the first book she had checked out.

 _"Chakra is, in essence, pure energy. Every jutsu that has ever been created, every elemental path humankind has ever mastered; nothing more than energy put to thought. Any person with the imagination and the chakra can create a new jutsu. The possibilities are limitless."_

Limitless.

Sakura liked the sound of that. Now, she just had to figure out how to use it.

Taking notes was the easy part. Exercises, tips, theory, metheods, she could do. Iruka-sensei liked to talk about how there were two kinds of ninja – the paper-nins who learned better by thinking in a classroom, and the ninja who were better at executing techniques and jutsu. Well, Sakura had always known she was the former, and she had used those skills as much as possible to the important information out of her new books before they were due.

There were a few problems, though. First of all, there were two aspects to chakra – physical and spiritual energy. Sakura knew she would be fine with spiritual energy, because meditation sounded easy and she already thought a lot anyways. Physical energy, on the other hand, required exercise, and she _hated_ exercise. Not for the first time that week, Sakura found herself wondering _why_ exactly she wanted to be a ninja again, and she _did not like_ the fact that she couldn't come up with an answer.

Sasuke had never been enough to make her do exercise, after all.

In fact, one stupid conversation between two of the biggest idiots she had ever met was making her Sasuke-centric world fall to pieces. She had remembered inconvenient facts, like how she had been an Academy student for _two years_ before her crush on Sasuke had begun. She still wanted to ( _date? marry?)_ be with Sasuke, but was that her _ambition?_ Did Sasuke even like her? Did Sasuke even _notice_ her? If Sasuke wasn't her goal in life, what was?

Why had she chosen the hardest job in Konoha as a civilian? Why did she care? Why was she standing in a sea of paper, on the brink of starting her training in the most basic aspect of a ninja's skillset? Why?

 _Maybe I don't need to know why._ Sakura shook herself back to her senses; what was she even thinking? She was doing all of this for Sasuke-kun, wasn't she? Besides, she was going to start training tomorrow. Now wasn't the time for Sakura to doubt herself!

Sakura nodded, then turned her light off and got into bed. There would be plenty of time tomorrow for chakra and Sasuke. Right now, she was tired.

Letting her whys slip away, Sakura drifted off to sleep with a content smile. _Tomorrow, Sakura Haruno takes the world by storm!_

::

Naruto held his hands behind his head as he walked up to the back row of the Academy classroom, a self assured grin written all over his face. "Ne, Shikamura, can I sit with you today?"

"No," Shikamura deadpanned.

Naruto sat in his normal seat that day.

::

Sakura frowned in intense concentration, looking down at the small brown pebble in the center of her palm. _This is it. I'll get it this time._ Years of training and preparation had led her to this point. Three days of trial and error had led her to begin to recognize the humming energy she had taken for granted as a constant of life as chakra. It had been a mind blowing revelation, but Sakura was far more focused on doing things with it, which was, as it turned out, _really, really hard._ If she focused hard enough, she had been able to make it more around just a bit faster – a cool tingly sensation that sent goosebumps down her spine. That proved Sakura could use chakra too. According to her book and her own assumptions, if she could just _stop_ the chakra in her hand instead of making it go faster, she could probably force the stone to stay there. So, if she just pulled a little bit harder…

Sakura took a deep breath, then flipped her hand over. The pebble fell to the desktop.

"AUGH! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

"So much for quiet bookish Sakura," Ino muttered, inching away from her frenemy. Sakura slumped back down at her desk, staring at the pebble depressedly. "What are you trying to do, anyways?"

"It's supposed to stick to my hand," Sakura said morosely.

Ino sweatdropped. _That does it. She's officially gone crazy._ "Okay? Then what's the hold-up?"

When Sakura's eyes lit up, Ino immediately regretted her statement. "You're right, Ino-pig! Haruno women never give up!" Triumphantly picking the pebble back up, Sakura slapped it back into her hand and promptly dumped it onto the desk again. "DAMN IT!" she screamed, punching the desk so hard a small crack appeared in the wood.

Ino leaned across her desk towards Sasuke, who was watching Sakura with wide eyes. "What the hell do you think is wrong with her?"

Sasuke, who was too surprised by his kunoichi admirer's behavior to remember he didn't talk to other people, said, "I have no idea." Their eyes met, then Sasuke seemed to come back to his senses and hurriedly looked away. Ino stared at the back of Sasuke's head, shocked that her crush had said something to her that wasn't mean or angsty.

"You'll sit with me someday, Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled on the other side of the room as the Nara heir buried his face in his hands.

Ino sat back in her seat and looked down at her hands. _Huh. Maybe I'm the one who's going crazy._

Another shriek of rage came from Sakura, and Ino sighed. It was going to be a long day.

::

Sake sloshed over the side of the cup when Choza slammed it down on the table, laughing uproariously. "And that's when Shikaku fell out of the tree, right in front of the Iwa shinobi!"

"You're exaggerating," Shikaku said with a yawn, taking a long drink of his own sake. "I dropped down, ready to face-"

"On your head?" Inoichi asked, unable to hold back a snicker.

Choza howled with laughter, and Shikaku shook his head. "Troublesome..."

Shikamaru sat with his arms crossed on the living room couch, sighing as he watched his dad glare at his genin teammates. The Akimichi household was lit with warm light, wide arched doorways leading to a massive kitchen and the dining room. "They're so drunk," he muttered, sinking lower into the comfortable couch kitchens. "Unbelievable."

Chouji shrugged, propping his elbows against the cushion behind him. "They're jonin, right? All that work must be annoying."

Groaning, the Nara heir hung his head. "These Ino-Shika-Cho gatherings are such a drag."

"Yeah, cause _I'm_ stuck with you two losers." Ino was laying across an armchair, her legs dangling over one arm and her hair over the other. "I could be on a team with Sasuke-kun someday, you know," she told them, idly playing with her nails.

"We know," Chouji and Shikamaru chorused, earning them a glare from Ino.

"What was that?!"

"It's not like she hasn't told us a million times," Chouji whispered.

"Troublesome woman."

"I can hear you!"

The trio fell silent for a long moment as Ino fumed and the conversation in the other room continued, loud and boisterous and filled with alcahol.

Shikamaru sighed. "You guys know that we're going to end up on the same team someday. I wouldn't bother getting my hopes up if I were you, Ino."

Ino looked up at him, surprised that he had addressed her directly, then her face briefly fell before she looked away with a scowl. "Just because you don't care about anything doesn't mean other people can't want things, idiot! You ought to be more considerate!"

He flinched, properly cowed by the tone of her voice. _Scary…_

"I wouldn't mind being on a team with you someday, Shika," Chouji told him with a smile.

Some things never changed, and Chouji was the best friend Shikamaru could ask for. Ignoring Ino's grandiose eye roll, Shikamaru smiled back. "Yeah. That wouldn't be so bad."

It wasn't that Shikamaru didn't care, far from it. He was too intelligent for that. No, he just understood that some things in life were inevitable, and there was no point in fighting in futility. As a Nara, he would be a ninja. As the clan heir, he would be part of an Ino-Shika-Cho trio. With the shadow jutsu he would learn someday, he would never need more than basic mobility skills, the basic jutsu, and excellent chakra control, all of which he already possessed. Expending more effort than necessary was pointless. His time was far better spent honing his intellect and strategy by playing shogi and simply thinking. Someday, he would be prepared to protect his clan, his village, his nation. That was his ninja way. That was the way things were.

Still, sometimes when he was cloud watching, he couldn't help but wonder.

 _If I had another path, another way forwards in life, would I take it?_

::

 **[A/N] I love Naruto, and I've had this fic on the backburner for a while. Let's see where it goes, yeah?**

 **Signing off, Allie**


	2. Don't Give Up

Don't Give Up

Allison Illuminated

::

 **Academy II**

::

The explosion ripped through the dirt ground of the training field, launching Naruto backward and sending smoke pluming into the air, a deep crater left behind in the ground where a decent clone had been standing a second earlier.

Iruka stared at the crater in mild shock, too stunned to pay attention to his student clambering to his feet from under the tree he had crashed into. "Naruto..."

Naruto smiled weakly at his instruction, trying to ignore the world spinning around him. "Tha's na s'pposed t'happen, is it?"

"It's… not exactly what I would have in mind," Iruka admitted. "You may have created an effective explosive jutsu. Not many Genin, even, can do _this much_ damage to so many training grounds. You have a talent for it."

If the chunin on patrol had been walking past the east side of the village, he would have stopped and stared; from Training Grounds Twenty-One to Twenty-Five, giant craters pocked the worn ground. The earth jutsu team would be working long hours fixing the grounds again. Naruto's awe at the power of jutsu had worn off last week. Now, after three weeks of trying to make his Clone Jutsu work, he was beginning to feel exasperated.

But that didn't matter! True Hokages never gave up, no matter what! Naruto _knew_ his explosions were getting a little smaller every time. Just a few more weeks, and he'd be ready for graduation!

He shook his head to make the spinning go away. "Alright, 'Ruka-sensei, let's go to the next training ground!"

"No, Naruto."

 _WHAT?_ "WHAT?"

Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging his old scar. "Look, I get that you want to learn this jutsu, but I can't come out and supervise you every time you want to practice. You _need_ to find a way to control your chakra, or else I'm going to make you wait until we start working on this jutsu in class."

Naruto's world shattered around him. _Iruka-sensei doesn't want to teach me anymore?_ Naruto widened his eyes in panic and ran to Iruka's side. "But that's not for a whole year!"

"I know." Iruka looked down at Naruto and sighed, pressing his lips tight together. "Your chakra develops as you age, you know. It's possible that waiting a year will allow you to do the jutsu without, ah..." He waved a diplomatic hand at the crater behind them.

"But I need to be the best to be Hokage!" Naruto protested.

Iruka gestured for the two of them to sit down. Plopping onto the ground in a pouting cross-legged position, Naruto huffed and looked away. "Naruto."

"What."

"Look at me."

Naruto looked at Iruka. His teacher was frowning, but his eyes were as kind as always. "I don't wanna stop."

"I'm not telling you to stop." Iruka sighed and settled down at Naruto's side. "Naruto, how long do you think it takes to become Hokage?"

 _How long?_ Naruto blinked, trying to figure out the answer. "Well, Jiji's super old and he's Hokage… So I guess, uh-" His eyes widened in horror. "OH NO! Only super old people get to be Hokage?!"

Iruka laughed. "Well, not everyone is as old as Hokage-sama, but yes. Most of our Hokages only became Hokage after they served for twenty, thirty years. The youngest Hokage was Minato and he was twenty three."

"That is old!" Naruto exclaimed, to which Iruka looked vaguely chagrined.

"Maybe to you, but you're only ten, Naruto. You've got time to train, to get strong. I don't know if you have enough knowledge about chakra and technique to pull off the Clone Jutsu just yet."

"Well, that's why I have you." Naruto gave Iruka a cheeky grin. "If I just hafta know something, then you can teach me!"

"I will teach you, Naruto," Iruka said. "It'll just have to be in class, when everyone else learns about it."

"But-"

Once more, Iruka sighed. Reaching over, he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto… Look, I'm not going to stop helping you outside of class altogether. Everyone deserves to learn how to read, and just because it comes harder to you than some kids shouldn't stop you from being able to read books in class like everybody else. But I can't keep doing this every day. If you make a real breakthrough, I promise I'll come out and see, but until then, I need you to put your energy here into trying harder in class, okay?"

That was what Iruka said, but all Naruto heard was _I can't keep doing this._ No matter what happened at Academy, Iruka-sensei had never stopped believing in him. If he didn't want to keep training him, then- then- Naruto wasn't sure what that meant. _He doesn't care? He doesn't want me to be Hokage?_ Naruto's eyes watered and he angrily wiped at them.

"Don't give up."

Naruto blinked as Iruka got to his feet. "Huh?"

"You're a bright kid, Naruto." Iruka smiled at him, adjusting his ninja headband. "You've managed two of the three Academy jutsu a year before other kids and you have enough chakra to level half of Konoha's training fields. I know you're smart. Instead of coming up with crazy pranks, use that mental energy to figure out how to control your chakra, okay? I know you'll figure it out."

Naruto didn't really register what he had said until he was already walking away. "Wait! Iruka-sensei!"

"Yes, Naruto?" Iruka turned around and regarded him.

 _Why don't you want to help me anymore?_ The question never left his lips. Instead, anger swelled in his chest; he would _show_ Iruka that he should keep practicing with him. Standing up, Naruto pointed at Iruka and yelled, "I'm gonna prove you wrong, dattebayo. I'll do the Clone Jutsu without your help, you'll see!"

Iruka should have walked back over and kept helping him; in reality, the academy instructor just smiled and walked away.

Naruto stared at his crater in utter desolation. Three weeks of training, and that was the best he could do? Worse, now he had lost his only teacher (and one of the only people in the village who could stand his presence, a voice in the back of his mind whispered). What was he supposed to do? He didn't know how to control his chakra. Why would Iruka tell him to learn something without teaching it to him? He was a _teacher_ ; it didn't make _sense_.

 _Don't give up._

There was no way Naruto would ever give up! He'd prove Iruka wrong and learn chakra control, and that would be that.

::

 _Fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty!_

Sakura let the pebble drop off of her palm and cheered in excitement. _Finally! I finally managed a minute!_ "Isn't that amazing?" she asked her stuffed animals. One particularly expressionless bear stared back.

For the past few weeks, Sakura had done little but work on her chakra exercises, much to the confusion of her friends and classmates. Even Sasuke didn't seem to know what to make of her new phase- and if Sakura was being honest with herself, neither did she. Ino and her were even back on speaking terms, for crying out loud! Something had changed, and Sakura couldn't quite figure it out.

She could feel how much her chakra reserves had expanded, in any case. They were like a living, muscle. Sakura felt stronger, lighter on her feet – if this was what being a ninja felt like physically, then she was all for it. She had been burning off so much energy that she had even forced herself to stop dieting so she could work for longer. _Maybe I've gone crazy!_

 _But even if I have, do I want to stop?_

In between her knees, Sakura's copy of _Chakra Manipulation and Mastery_ was opened to the fourth chapter. Her checkout from the library had expired; Sakura had begged her parents and they had agreed to get her her own copy. "Let's see," she muttered. "Why does it say all these exercises require more chakra!? I've got plenty, right?"

And suddenly, there it was. On the page, a man crouched sideways on a wall, a kunai held between his teeth. " _The Art of Wall Walking,"_ the chapter header read. Sakura's eyes widened. _Yes._ This was what she wanted to learn; real ninja skills, not something silly with a pebble! Leaning in, she skimmed over the first page.

 _Exercise. Exercise. Strength. Chakra-reinforced muscles. Exercise._

Sakura hung her head in utter despair. "Why is half of chakra about exercise?"

The control, she figured she could manage. Sure, she'd been practicing for only about a month, but it couldn't be _too_ hard, right? And if Sakura could control her chakra, pushing it into her muscles couldn't be all that bad. But the book made the situation crystal clear.

If Sakura ever wanted to do things with chakra beyond basic exercises, she would need to start working out, stat.

So, with a grudging heart, Sakura found herself clearing all her meticulous notes about technique off her desk and started drafting an exercise plan.

 _#1 – Running_

 _#2 – Sit-Ups_

 _#3 – Push-ups?_

 _#4 –_

What exercises were there besides those three?

Sakura banged her head against her desk with a moan. "I don't wanna do this..."

Suddenly, she got an idea. There was no way in all the world that she was going to do any of this alone; that would just be miserable. _No, if I want to get any of this done, I need to find a training buddy._

And Sakura knew just where to start!

::

"Oh, Sa-su-keeeee!"

Sasuke turned around and glared at Sakura, who had interrupted his training. "What do you want?"

Sakura gave him her best angelic grin and batted her eyelashes. "Would you like to train with me? I have a whole exercise plan worked out-" 

"No!"

"What?!" Sakura gaped at Sasuke as he turned away and resumed his kata. "But you didn't even here what my plan was! Don't you care about getting stronger?"

Okay, so maybe that was a _little_ more manipulative than what Sakura had been going for, but hey, if it worked, what was the harm?

Sasuke slowly turned back around, this time with a violent fire in his eyes. Sakura wilted a bit and took a step backward. "I don't have time for pathetic fangirls who have nothing better to do that come up with ways to get closer to me," he snarled. "Go away." 

"...But I was being serious," Sakura mumbled. Tears prickled in the corners of her eyes- _what? Sasuke's rejected me plenty of times but I_ _haven't cried over it in years_ _._ "I-"

His anger didn't leave, but Sasuke's tone softened a bit. "Well, maybe next time you're _serious_ about something you show it instead of groveling!"

 _Show that you're serious._

Sakura couldn't help it – sheburst into tears and ran away. Sasuke didn't want her around even when she wanted to do something he cared about! How was she supposed to find a training partner now?

::

Naruto tiptoed up the aisle and sat down next to Shikamaru, a wild grin on his face.

Shikamaru stared at his classmate. "Was that supposed to be sneaky?"

As if he hadn't heard the question, Naruto pointed right in Shikamaru's face and yelled, "Ha! I'm sitting here already so now you can't make me leave!"

"Uh..." Blinking, Shikamaru tried to figure out the blond enigma before him. "You know that Chouji usually sits there, right?"

Naruto waved a hand, scooting into Shikamaru's side and wiggling his butt into the bench to get comfortable. "Oh, that's fine! I can be super skinny, dattebayo!"

"You're just going to come back if I kick you out, aren't you?"

"Yup!"

Shikamaru groaned and covered his eyes with his hands. _This guy…_ "Troublesome."

::

Sakura shifted nervously from foot to foot on the other side of the street across for the Yamanaka flower shop. She had been standing there for ten minute, trying to build up the courage to cross the street and find Ino. Something about the sting of Sasuke shutting her down was making her nervous; if Ino said no as well, who else was she supposed to ask to exercise with her? Naruto? _No way!_

 _This is silly! All I need to do is ask her, why is this so hard?_

 _But are we even friends anymore? Will she say yes? Will she care?_

She wanted to claw at her hair. "Why is this so hard?!"

"Why is what so hard?"

Sakura jolted backward in surprise to find Ino standing next to her, giving her a curious look. "Ah! Uh, um, Ino! Hi! I, uh-"

Ino stared at her, her pupil-less eyes as impossible to read as ever. "You were staring at my house? I was waiting for you to come in, but you didn't, so..."

 _She knows I was out here?!_ Sakura opened and closed her mouth a few times, words escaping her. "I, uh, wanted to talk to you?"

To her chagrin, Ino _smiled_ and rolled her eyes.

"Well, duh, I kind of figured that. Want to come inside?"

And Sakura realized that she really, really did.

In the past few years, Ino's room had barely changed. There was still her vanity, covered with make-up Sakura had never ever heard of; her costume trunk, which now had an oversized stuffed fox sitting on it; and her big bed with the gauzy canopy, a family heirloom that had been perfect for playing save the princess as little kids (they had taken turns being the ninja). A perfect vase of white lilies, always fresh, sat on the dresser.

Ino pulled Sakura in by the hand because she was too busy staring at everything and anything around her. They fell onto the bed together, and Ino waved a hand in front of her face. "What did you want to talk about?"

Sakura pulled herself into a sitting position and took a deep breath to rid herself of the nostalgia. "I-" _I have this great idea to get Sasuke-kun – don't you think he'll just want to date us if we work out more?_

Except Sakura didn't think that. Now, she wasn't sure Sasuke would ever want to date her at all. _Show that you're serious._ Sasuke-kun had given her that advice. Maybe…

So, instead of what she had been planning to say...

"I really need a partner to exercise with me because the book says that the only way I can ever do any of the advanced exercises is if my physical energies meet up with my spiritual energies and I tried to do the wall-walking but I couldn't hold myself up on the wall and-" Sakura babbled until Ino held up a hand to cut her off.

"Wait, you're asking me to… exercise with you?"

Sakura blushed and looked down at Ino's skeptical tone. "Yeah. I don't wanna do it alone."

Ino frowned. "Why me?"

"Well..." Sakura traced a circle on the bed, blushing deeper. "I asked Sasuke-kun if he wanted to train with me first, and he said no, and I wasn't sure- He's the only one who trains like that outside of class, y'know? And I-"

"Ha! I knew it!" Ino sneered and shook her head. "This is just another one of your plots to date Sasuke-kun before me, isn't it! Well I'm not gonna fall for it! No way am I going to lose to you, Forehead-Girl- Wait, are you _crying_?"

Sakura definitely _wasn't_ crying again; her lower lip was just trembling a bit. "It wasn't for that, okay?" she shouted back.

Ino sat back, shaken but still skeptical. "Then what was it for? You know Sasuke doesn't like-"

"I don't care! I asked him for help and he called me a pathetic fangirl and told me I wasn't serious!" Sakura cried.

"But why would you ask him for help?"

"I told you, he's the only one who works so hard outside of class. You know that's one of the reasons I admire him!" Sakura dug her fingers into her sock in agitation, leaning forward. "I though he at least cared-"

"Ha!" Ino scoffed. "Like he would care."

Ino's words dug even deeper into Sakura's wounded emotions. "Well, at least he's honest about how he feels about me! And I thought that maybe if it wasn't about dating for once that he might actually see that I'm not just his fangirl but-"

"So you admit you were trying to gain Sasuke's affection!" Ino lifted her head triumphantly, vindicated in her thoughts.

"MAYBE IT ISN'T ABOUT SASUKE-KUN, OKAY?"

Sakura's voice echoed through the Yamanaka household, bouncing down the stairs. Taken aback, Ino couldn't do anything but gape at Sakura, who was breathing heavily, halfway in disbelief about what she had just said. _Not about Sasuke…? But- No, I came here because it wasn't about Sasuke, didn't I?_ She threw up her hands in agitation. _How did this even become a conversation about Sasuke in the first place? I was asking about exercising!_

"Ino? Sakura? Are you alright up there?" Ino's mom called up the stairs.

Ino blinked, coming back to her sense. "Yeah, Mom, we're alright!" she called back.

Sakura was not alright. Sakura wasn't sure what she was. She felt kind of light, like waking up from a strange dream to find the morning sun reflecting onto her face. _I…_

"Who else was I supposed to ask to exercise with me?" she found herself saying. "The only people I ever talk to are Sasuke, who hates me, and you and everyone else who wants to date Sasuke, and all of you also hate me. The only other person who talks to me is Naruto! I mean, god, _Naruto_. What was I supposed to do?" A shameful hot tear trickled down Sakura's face. "I just want to not be pathetic. I mean, I've barely beaten _anyone_ in out class in a fight-"

"You've beaten me," Ino muttered.

"-and I've _finally_ found something I'm good at and I just-" Sakura sniffled. "I thought that maybe he cared, beyond dating- And was that so crazy? We sit together in class every day! He- he knows me, and I- But _no_ , he didn't care at all! He didn't care that I want to get better! And all because of _stupid_ Shikamaru and _stupid_ chakra and the _stupid_ book and I'm _stupid_ for thinking I could be a better ninja in the first place and-"

"Wait, wait, wait. Shika? What does Shika have to do with all of this?" Ino tapped her cheek. "I wouldn't exactly call him stupid..."

Sakura's shoulders slumped. "People with ambition have to do real work, or else they never get what they want," she muttered. "That's what he said."

"He told you _that?_!" Ino burst out laughing. "But he's the laziest person in Konoha!"

"That's what I said."

Ino looked relieved, like she didn't have to care about what Sakura was saying anymore. "Well, if you're all worked up about something that idiot said, then don't be! I mean, you're already _way_ ahead of the class on chakra stuff, and you're still number one for the girls, so-"

"But he's _right."_ Sakura said it with conviction she hadn't realized she had. "I have to- I need to-"

She trailed off, leaving Ino confused again. "Ambition? You're ambitious?"

Sakura's brow furrowed, but she nodded. "Yeah?"

"For what? Sasuke?"

Sakura tried to imagine it like she always did – Sasuke would come home from a long day of work, and she would be waiting in the kitchen with her ninja headband – no, wait, apron – no, headband- _what?_ \- and he would say- _I don't have time for pathetic fangirls-_

"No!"

Ino was taken aback. _Not Sasuke,_ she mouthed; after a long moment, she stared at Sakura. "Well," she said slowly, "if your ambition isn't about Sasuke, then… what is it?"

"I..." Sakura blinked, feeling empty inside. "I don't know."

…

A gust of wind slipped through the wind, rustling the lilies in the jar.

"I hate exercise," Ino said softly.

Sakura smiled back, feeling weak. "So do I."

"I have to work the store some days."

"I know."

"Yamanaka are supposed to have more physical than spiritual chakra by nature." Ino drummed the comforter. "It's for our family justu, or something. I can't take it too far, even if I want to. And the elders dictate what jutsu we can learn as academy students, so I don't know if I'll be able to help you, much. My father will want me to wait until Iruka-sensei gets to chakra before I start the exercises. He already makes me meditate and do family exercises. I don't think I can try any of the things you've been working on."

"I don't have a clan," Sakura whispered.

Ino sighed, reached out and put a hand over Sakura's. "I know."

"Do you hate me?"

The look that Ino gave Sakura spoke magnitudes; she just wasn't exactly sure what they were. "Tell you what. How about we meet here an hour before Academy starts every day and we'll see what we can do, okay? I can't promise you anything, but-"

Ino stopped talking when she found Sakura's arms thrown around her. Smiling, she hugged her old friend back. "Thank you," Sakura told her, her face pressed into her lavender scented hair. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"You aren't stupid, Sakura," Ino murmured back. "You're already a way better ninja than I'll ever be."

And for a moment, Sakura believed that maybe, just maybe, Ino was right.

::

Shikamaru hated when things didn't make sense.

Usually, that meant that _he_ had to do something about it.

Take, for example, class today. It should by all rights have been a typical Monday. Instead, Naruto (who had made a habit of being the third man at Shikamaru and Chouji's table) wasn't even pretending to pay attention and was clearly ten feet deep in an unbreakable funk. Sakura and Ino burst into class, together, _ten minutes late_ , completely out of breath. When Iruka had questioned them about where they had been, Ino shrugged and Sakura just appologized before proceeding to walk _in the opposite direction from Sasuke_ when Ino went to take her normal seat. That seemed to boggle even Iruka, really everyone in the class _except for Naruto_ , who ought to have been the most interested in the new development in his blatantly obvious crush!

Well, Sasuke didn't seem confused either, but he was Sasuke. That was expected.

"What's wrong with everyone today?" Choiji whispered to Shikamaru after Iruka tore a long, longing gaze away from Naruto and started teaching.

"I have absolutely no idea."

::

"Alright, so this is the kanji for transfer," Iruka said, pointing at two characters he had underlined on the scroll for the Clone Jutsu. He and Naruto sat together in Naruto's darkened apartment, crouching over Naruto's cluttered kitchen table. Naruto shifted back and forth unhappily as Iruka taught, only partially taking in what he was being told. All he could think was _he doesn't want to teach me._ "I want you to practice writing that one now, alright? The jutsu talks about transferring an image of yourself to another place, as opposed to your chakra itself. It's important to remember that this transfer is actually done in your mind, not outside of your body. In that way, the Clone Jutsu is closely related to genjutsu, or illusions."

Naruto scribbled the kanji down on his piece of paper a few times, his hand-writing somewhere in between horrible and illegible. _I don't care if Iruka-sensei want to teach me or not! I'm gonna learn it no matter what._ "So all you gotta do is think about it? That doesn't seem that hard."

"Exactly!" Iruka beamed at Naruto. "And that's where the hand signs come in, right? The image in your mind provides the template, and the handsigns dictate how that image is portrayed."

"But I don't understand," Naruto said. "Why d'you gotta have an image of yourself, dattebayo? Can't I just copy myself?"

Iruka's beam vanished, and he sighed. Naruto's brief moment of accomplishment left just as fast, leaving him right back to feeling like a chastised six-year-old. "The Clone Jutsu isn't a true clone, Naruto. There are much more advanced jutsus where you do create true clones, but those can be extremely dangerous and require more chakra than any academy student has, even you. As long as you keep trying to do the jutsu like that, you won't succeed. You're too young to invent a true jutsu from scratch. It requires a lot of theory that even more Chuunin don't know."

 _No fair!_ Naruto was already projecting enough chakra to learn the more advanced clones; he just knew it! Why did he have to learn a technique he was bad at when another one was much easier?

He told Iruka as much.

"The hard things are often the things most worth doing, Naruto," Iruka told him. "Besides, you won't be able to graduate from the academy unless you learn how to make a clone."

Naruto blinked. Blinked again. And got a brilliant idea. "So if I learn the jutsu, then I can graduate?" he exclaimed.

Iruka suddenly looked wary. "Yes, but-"

"Yatta! Okay, Iruka-sensei, I gotta go practice the vision thing now!" Naruto jumped to his feet and ran over to his shoes. Putting them on faster that anything else he had done that day, he grinned at Iruka and threw the door open.

"Naruto, wait-"

But Naruto was already out the door. He had a new plan, a plan that would be certain to win the village's approval and make him Hokage! After all, how many ninjas could say that they had graduated from the academy early?

::

The first week that Sakura and Ino trained together in the morning, they did five rounds of ten push-ups, ten sit-ups, and a lap around the Yamanaka compound.

The second week, they did five rounds of twenty push-ups and sit-ups and two laps around the Yamanaka compound.

The third week, they added a sixth round and started doing pull-ups as well.

The exercise was hard and exhausting. Sakura had never kept to a strict exercise regime in her life, even counting the academy, and it took a toll on her. She started sleeping ten hours a night. She was late to class for the first time in her life, and she was too tired to even care. Worst of all, the Yamanaka elders strictly forebode Ino from doing their work out two days in a row, so half the time, all Ino could do was sit by and watch her train.

But it _worked._

Sakura could feel herself getting stronger, and it was incredible. Halfway through the third week, some of her constant soreness started to fade away. Her pebble exercise lasted for five minutes, then ten, then thirty. Because it was so easy and non-intrusive, Sakura could do the exercise during class and nobody would notice (except for that one time when she passed out and Naruto volunteered to take her to the nurse. That wasn't fun.)

Sakura still hated exercising with a burning passion. The physical activities themselves were miserable. But, given how much better it made everything else in her life, she wrote them off as a necessary evil.

And the best part of all was, without Sasuke to come between them, Ino had become her best friend again.

She didn't quite know what, exactly, she felt towards Sasuke. She still admired him and found him attractive, but it was… tainted, in a way. So, instead of dwelling on it, she just pushed those thoughts aside and focused on whatever was in front of her. More often than not, that was _Chakra Manipulation and Mastery._ Sakura had just about memorized the fourth chapter, the one that described tree walking.

There was one line she had zeroed in on. According to the book, once a ninja could do the pebble exercise for an hour straight, they were ready to move to tree walking. Sakura just needed half an hour longer, and she would be ready.

Maybe her study habits had gotten a little obsessive. Maybe nobody in the class but Ino knew quite what to expect from her anymore. Sakura was okay with that. It wasn't like their expectations of her had been accurate in the first place, she told herself.

On the fourth week, Sakura and Ino decided to try and lap Konoha instead of doing their normal running.

"This is insane," Ino muttered. They stood in front of the flower shop; she was busy tying her hair back into a tighter ponytail. "You know that _Genin_ train by running laps around the village, right?"

Sakura shrugged. Once her mom had gotten wind of her morning training, Sakura had begged her to find a dress she could run in so she wouldn't have to wear shorts or pants. The end result of that extended shopping trip was a red qipao with cut sides that she could wear with tights. It was _perfect_ ; her mom had bought her three. Now, with her dress and a matching hairband, she didn't have to bother changing before working out like Ino. "You said you thought we were ready for it, didn't you?"

"Can I take that back?" Ino asked.

Sticking her tongue out at Ino, Sakura started jogging, already eyeing the village wall down the avenue. "C'mon, let's go! We can skip the Hokage monument if you really think it's too far."

Ino groaned and ran after her. "Slave driver."

No matter who was tired and who was ready to sprint ahead, they always ran together. They talked about nothing and everything. It was perfect.

To Sakura, it became obvious very quickly that running around the village was leagues harder than anything else they had done together. Ino was ready to quit before they even made it a fourth of the way around the wall. By the time they hit the quarter mark, Sakura was ready to follow Ino back to the flower shop.

"Come… on…" she wheezed. "Let's at least… make it… to… the end of the... training grounds."

"Do we have to?" Ino groaned, doubled over with both hands on her thighs. "I think I'm gonna puke."

And before Sakura could respond, Ino staggered over to the nearby railing and retched over the edge. Sakura made a face and ran to her side. "Ino!"

Ino retched again; gagging and spitting over the edge, she hung her head. "Maybe we should be done for the morning."

Sakura was about to respond when she caught a glimpse of something yellow at one of the further training grounds. _No… It couldn't be._ But, sure enough, there he was; Naruto Uzumaki stood in the middle of a crater-filled field, staring straight ahead with intense concentration. Sakura widened her eyes when he launched into a combination of hand signs and shouted an inaudible jutsu name. For a moment, a hazy yellow outline appeared a few feet away from Naruto, who whooped in joy and started dancing. As soon as he did, the outline exploded, leaving a little crater where it had been. Flipping moods like a light switch, Naruto fell to the ground in despair.

"Hey, Ino," Sakura said, nudging her with her elbow. "Look over there."

Ino gagged and shook her head. "I'm a little busy right now! God, this is what I get for letting you talk me into starting to eat breakfast again! I had great diet going, and now all that extra food Mom's been making is, well-" She waved at the grass below the wall.

"No, really. Is that Naruto?"

Looking up just in time to see Naruto's jutsu explode again, Ino hummed. "You're right. What do you think he's doing?"

Sakura stared at Naruto, trying to pick expression out from a distance. _Naruto, the biggest idiot in the class, is out practicing jutsu?_ "I think he's trying to make a clone," Sakura said faintly.

Ino snorted. "Clone Jutsu isn't supposed to explode."

Sakura laughed, but her eyes didn't leave Naruto. "Sure, but we haven't even tried it yet, have we? That's material from next year."

"Maybe he's trying to impress you?" Ino pushed herself to her feet and nudged Sakura, he face starting to return to its normal color. "Come on, I feel like I swallowed a rat."

She let Ino lead her back to the flower shop, but for the rest of the day, all that Sakura could wonder about was Naruto.

::

Iruka wasn't sure what he expected when Naruto came to his class after school and begged him to let him show of his Clone Jutsu, dragging him off to one of the training grounds.

 _If I had had a choice, I would have kept teaching the kid._ That's what Iruka had told himself for the past two months, even as the bitter guilt of watching Naruto disconnect further from class and shoot him bitter glances during their study sessions ate him inside. One-on-one training was favoritism, pure and simple, which was a dangerous proposition for a teacher responsible for thirty kids. His time with Naruto had begun to affect his grading and his sleep. _Still, I feel bad for him. He's living on his own, most of the village hates him, and Shikamaru and Chouji are the only ones in class who tolerate him._

He wasn't sure why Shikamaru had decided to start letting Naruto hang around him, but Iruka was more than pleased that Naruto finally had some semblance of friends.

What Iruka hadn't expected was that Naruto would pull out an almost functional clone jutsu.

Unable to move due to intense concentration, Naruto could only smile at Iruka. Next to him, a semi-amorphous yellow and orange blob shimmered with barely contained power. "Look, Iruka-sensei, I did it!"

At Iruka's cue, Naruto dispelled the clone and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. Iruka remembered to shut his mouth and speak. "Wow. That's- Naruto, compared to where you were the last time you showed me, that's _incredible_."

Naruto _beamed,_ and Iruka cursed his soft spot for the boy, and not for the last time. "I told you I'd be ready to graduate! I told you!"

 _Graduate?_ "When do you think you're graduating?"

"Next month!"

No. A million reasons no. Naruto was nowhere near mature enough to be on a Genin team- to go on missions- or worse of all, god forbid, _kill people_. Iruka wouldn't stand for it. He had too much left to teach him.

"Naruto..."

But before Iruka could say another word, the same look Naruto had had when he had stopped doing jutsu training with him was back, and it was heartbreaking. Naruto looked terrified. Iruka pinched his nose and sighed. _I can't believe I'm about to say this._

 _"_ Look, your clone's gotten a lot better, but it's still not good enough for you become a Genin," Iruka said, kneeling down so he could be on the same level as Naruto. "Your clone needs to be just as perfect as your henge and substitution, and you also need to have mastered your shuriken and kunai jutsus."

Naruto met Iruka's eyes in determination. "I can do it, dattebayo!"

Iruka pursed his lips, sighed. "Well, then I suppose I'll see what I can do. No promises, but I just might convince the Hokage to let you test next month."

"YES!" Naruto cheered and jumped to his feet. "I won't let you down, Iruka-sensei!"

 _You've already far exceeded my expectations, Naruto,_ Iruka thought as he watched his student celebrate. _I just hope that everyone you meet in life can be as kind to you as me._

::

 **[A/N] Wow, was the reception on this fic overwhelmingly awesome. A hundred followers on the first chapter? You guys…**

 **To the reviews complaining about anti-book sentiment – Naruto isn't too hot at reading, which is why Iruka is teaching him. In a society like Konoha where far more people learn trades than get proper formal education (ninja are a minority), I think someone like Teuchi who believes that practical learning is more effective than reading makes a lot of sense. He's a nice contrast with Iruka, who is shocked to learn Naruto _can't_ read properly.**

 **I'm not perfect on canon unlike some of my other fandoms, so we're just gonna role with the punches :)**

 **Thank you to Nosfe, luffyssjg, SlyUzimakiVii, Wyle23, Miroku Kensei, ByteTheFoot, Abstractty, Kuman, Zabzab, MM995, preservedpearls, AkabaneKazama, LadyWilliams, and two guests for reviewing!**

 **Allie**


	3. Let Him Fail

Let Him Fail

Allison Illuminated

::

 **Academy III**

::

"No."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was having a long day. To be fair, it was more of a long week, in a long month, in a series of long years that started somewhere in between losing the village's most powerful clan and the death of the Fourth Hokage. Never mind that it was the Fourth and his _spawn_ that was causing him problems – again – or that his earlier meeting with Danzo had left him with an ear-splitting headache he was sure would rival one of Tsunade's infamous hangovers, if his team still were Konoha nin and not blown to the four winds. Musings of an old man, really. Still, Hiruzen had no time for sentimentality and he _definitely_ had no time for Iruka Umino.

"But Hokage-sama!" Iruka protested. "Please, at least hear me out! Naruto, he's brilliant and he's finally found the motivation I've been trying-"

Naruto Uzumaki. Why was it always Naruto Uzumaki? Hiruzen leaned forward over his desk, eyes glinting with a steely promise; Iruka shut up and gulped. "What did I tell you about the boy last time, Umino?" he said, voice deceptively even. "What part of 'stop training him' didn't you understand?"

Iruka, to the chunin's credit, didn't back down. Good. Hiruzen had high hopes for the young teacher – if he could impart that backbone to his students, it would be to his credit. "I _did_ stop training him, sir. You didn't stop me from assessing his progress, which is my job as well. Would you deprive me of that, too?"

"Cheek, Umino."

"Sorry, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen wanted to sigh. He _always_ wanted to sigh. But, as usual, he shoved the impulse down, relying on years of technique, and narrowed his eyes. "So the boy has been showing you his 'progress,' has he? I don't suppose you'd like to pay for all the extra hours my earth specialists have been working?"

Iruka paled and waved his hands frantically. "No sir!"

Backbone or not, nobody could stand up to the God of Shinobi for long when he was mad. "Then," Hiruzen said, settling back into his chair. "Why don't you tell me what the boy has done to make you try to sign him up for the graduation exams _two years early."_

"Y-yes." Quickly regaining his composure, Iruka stood up straighter. Hiruzen caught the bright gleam that entered his eyes. Truly, passionate to a fault. "It's incredible, sir," Iruka said, his voice soft. "I _knew_ he had untapped potential, but the speed that he's overcoming his, uh, chakra problems and getting jutsu down is incredible! Not to mention, his exploding clones could qualify as a jutsu of their own. I've been teaching him how to read-"

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "He doesn't know how to read?"

"No sir."

His headache worsened. "Explain."

"I think it's negligence, Hokage-sama." Iruka crossed his arms, torn between a thoughtful and angry expression. "His old teachers hated him. As far as I can tell, he learned more in the month I tutored him than the entire rest of his time in Academy." _Now_ his expression darkened. "Naruto should be a goddamn prodigy with his creativity and his aptitude, and instead I have to teach him what chakra is! So _forgive me_ if I don't understand why you won't at least let me teach him, even if he doesn't graduate early!"

 _Forgive me, Minato._ A great weariness overcame Hiruzen; an even greater effort was required to hold it off his face. _I've done your son a great injustice._ A necessary one, perhaps, to keep the boy away from Danzo or Iwa or worse, but an injustice nonetheless. "Watch your tongue, Umino, unless you want me to demote you back to a desk job."

Iruka's eye twitched, but he didn't stand down. "Naruto _will_ be powerful whether we help him or not. Doesn't the boy deserve not to be alone in his own village?"

 _You don't think I know that, boy?_ Hiruzen met Iruka's eyes. "You know of the fox."

It was a statement of fact. Iruka nodded jerkily, his tells poorly hidden from the Hokage's eye. "What of it?"

When Hiruzen rose to his feet, face shadowed under his hat, Iruka took a step back in involuntary apprehension. For a moment, Hiruzen allowed the boy a taste of who he _truly_ was – not killing intent, not really, but enough chakra to put weight on his shoulders and fear in his heart. "Tell me, Umino," he murmured, crystal clear, as he turned to the window. Ashes fell from his pipe to the floor of his office. "Do you think I haven't thought to train Naruto myself?"

"I-"

"Silence." Hiruzen raised his gaze to the night stars. "Naruto is hated. Reviled. But safe. He cannot control his chakra. He cannot lay a hand on the civilians beyond the simplest pranks. Right now, that ignorance is the only thing protecting him from the fox in his belly and the people around him. If he makes contact with the fox now and engages with it, he will _lose_. He is too. young. The bijuu will twist his mind, or worse – if Naruto takes on its chakra, it will fry his coils and he will die. This is not a certainty, but Konoha can't afford to find out. You mean well, Iruka, but _check yourself._ "

Turning, he found Iruka trembling behind him. Poor boy; fists clenched, Iruka looked ready to fight or have a nervous breakdown. "And if Naruto stays on this path? What if it's too late for you to keep him from succeeding?"

"Then god save us all," Hiruzen said, and meant it. "Do your job, Umino."

The conversation was over.

…

"Let him fail."

Hiruzen looked up, his headache raging on. _Why is he still here?_ "You're dismissed, chuunin."

"I'll fail him." Iruka took a step forward, jutting his jaw out, eyes more than a bit wild. "Let me do that much, at least. Naruto's made progress, but he won't pass. Let him take the test, and I'll fail him – he'll never give up. Just a little bit more positive reinforcement and he'll stick at it, even though he'll never master his chakra control alone. By the time he graduates with the rest of his class, you can give him a jonin sensei and he'll still be motivated, even in two years. Please, sir."

"You're playing a dangerous game." Hiruzen mulled the proposition over in his head. He had hoped just the mention of the nine-tailed fox would be enough to scare Iruka off the subject, but Iruka seemed to be made of tougher stuff. In truth, Naruto's seal was foolproof – Jiraiya had seen to that. Naruto was still susceptible to mental attacks, but he could take all nine tails of the beast's chakra and survive. Hiruzen's reasons were less clear-cut. If Danzo saw the boy as a prodigy, he might demand a fast track to ANBU, and Naruto would go the way of Kakashi. Worse, if the village saw Naruto as a prodigy, they might panic, and Naruto would go the way of Itachi.

Too much at stake. Too little information.

One hopeful academy instructor.

 _Dangerous indeed._

Hiruzen couldn't hold back his sigh now. "If it is as you say, and Naruto has that potential..."

"Someday, the village is going to eat every negative word they've even said to that boy," Iruka said, not a hint of doubt in his voice. Head held high, Iruka's leaf headband glinted in the electric lights. Hiruzen could admire that certitude.

"Fine. Let him take the test, but he _will_ be in your class next year. Get out of my office."

Iruka left.

 _I'm too old for this,_ Hiruzen mulled, taking a long huff on his pipe. _F_ _ar too old to be toying with the lives of children._

::

Feet pounding against the parapet of the wall, Sakura and Ino ran side by side, halfway through the first lap of their morning run. The sun was bright, and Sakura felt invigorated under the warm rays. With chakra flowing and blood pumping though her veins, her best friend at her side, she had never been more awake, excited, alive. Colorful roofs and pedestrians flew by below – the massive trees that hid the village in leaves passed slower, but steadily. Months of training had made the landscape familiar.

"Can you _believe_ what Ami did the other day?"

"Ugh, _yes_ , the stunt she pulled with Sasuke-kun? Bringing him an entire cake – who does that?"

"You did, last year."

"For his _birthday._ "

"Hypocrite."

"Birthdays are different, okay!"

"YOSH! THE FIRES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHT IN KONOHA TODAY! CARRY ON, SPIRITED YOUTH!"

Sakura jumped in surprise when a man clad in an eyesore of a bright green jumpsuit tore past them. Eeping in shock, Ino sprang out of the way – the man slowed to a light jog and spun to run backwards, flashing the girls a brilliant grin. He had disturbingly thick eyebrows and a bowl cut. "W-what?" Sakura stammered.

The man's grin widened. "Don't stop on my account! Train on!"

Ino grabbed Sakura's arm as the man sprinted off, eyes wide. "Oh, that's bad." 

"What's bad?"

"That was Might Guy! He was on Chouji's dad's genin team!" Ino shivered a bit, crossing her arms. "He's _crazy."_

Sakura watched Guy disappear around a bend, frowning at his back. _Crazy, huh?_ Weren't all ninjas crazy? Still, if Ino was _scared_ of him, Sakura would be foolish not to pay attention. "He certainly seemed… enthusiastic."

"That's one way to put it."

They kept running, talking idly about nothing in particular, but Sakura let her mind wander. After weeks of careful meditation and dedicated exercise, her chakra levels approached the threshold she had decided she'd need to start wall walking. Sakura couldn't wait. The procedure was all internalized; her memory was good, and she'd just about memorized her chakra book anyways. There was a stack of a couple more books waiting in her room for when she got advanced enough.

Sakura wondered about her newfound love for the art, sometimes. The idea that so powerful a drive had been dormant inside her scared her a bit. Had she always wanted to be a ninja, a _good_ ninja, so badly? What if she had other skills waiting for her to discover? It was a lot for a ten-year-old to think about, even one training to be a professional killer by age twelve.

Running put her in a zen space even meditation couldn't. Such thoughts were hard to ignore.

"Sakura?" Ino asked as they rounded the Hokage monument to finish the first half of lap two. "Are you okay?"

Sakura blinked and shook her head to clear her mind. "Yeah, sorry. I got distracted."

"You didn't use to think so much." Ino slowed enough to purse her lips and pull her ponytail tighter. The Yamanaka heir was sweating and panting from the effort of running uphill.

Maybe not. Ino was right. Sakura looked out over the village below them. "I guess I've just got more on my mind."

"Okay..."

"CARRY ON! YOSH!"

Gai passed the duo once more after that on their way around the village, shouting more incomprehensible motivation at the girls. Sakura ignored him. She and Ino fell into a comfortable silence, her thoughts blessedly quiet, and she flowed with the familiar scenery. The main gate, low roofs, high roofs, the blessed quiet of the training grounds, a gentle bend around the memorial, the upward limb from the Inazuka compound up the Hokage monument, a treacherous downhill section, a full view of the desolate Uchiha district, then a last pass by the seedier parts of town back to the gate: lap three.

By the start of lap four, Ino looked ready to vomit. "Sakura, wait, stop."

Pushing down a pulse of annoyance, Sakura pulled over to the side of the wall as Ino leaned raggedly on the railing, staring out into the forest. "Are you okay?"

"No." Ino curtly shook her head. "I'm gonna stop here, okay? Five's pretty ambitious."

"We've done it before."

"Once. After a full day of rest."

Sakura bit her lip, anxious at the idea of running alone. She didn't _want_ Ino to leave her alone; then again, she supposed she was lucky Ino ran with her at all. "I'm going to keep going," she said, a bit guilty.

"I know." Ino flashed her a fond, fatigued smile. "Of course you are."

A wave of affection swept Sakura up. She gave Ino a hug, wondering how they had ever stopped being friends. "Get to class, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Ino rolled her eyes, pushing away from the wall and heading for the nearest staircase. "I'll give Iruka-sensei the usual excuse when you're late." She waved, then left the wall.

Sakura sighed and kept running.

Lap four was quiet. Agitated and getting tired, her hair whipping as the wind picked up, Sakura let her chakra start trickling into her feet, sending little pulses into the stone, the momentum sending her flying along the parapet, faster than she'd ever run before. Ino got annoyed when Sakura spent too much time playing with her chakra in front of her, but when Ino left, all bets were off.

Chakra was _fun_! Sakura had _hated_ rough play as a kid – maybe not a _great_ ninja trait – but this? She could run all day, or at least until her reserves fell out. Whooping in joy, Sakura pulled a front flip, her arms streaming out behind her. The sun silhouetted her to any watchers in the village – nobody would see the civilian kid ninja who may or may not have been late for Academy again. Sakura lived for the mornings.

So overcome in her enthusiastic enjoyment of her own powers was she that Sakura didn't notice Guy had started running alongside her for a few moments. When she did, she yelped and Guy shot her a brilliant smile. "Your enjoyment is incredible!" he exclaimed at a somewhat-normal volume. "Truly, you are in the springtime of youth! But where has your friend gone?"

"She got tired," Sakura said with a shrug. "Five laps is a lot for us. I-" She blushed. "I didn't want to stop."

Guy nodded, his smile fading to a thoughtful frown. "What's your name?"

Sakura's eyes widened – a famous jonin wanted to know _her_ name? _I'm just a no-name civilian girl…_ "S-Sakura Haruno, sir."

"Might Guy," Guy corrected her. Sakura was starting to get worried about why his thoughtful expression wasn't going away. "You're an academy student, yes?"

"Yes."

"YOSH!" The return to max volume shocked Sakura so badly that she stumbled backwards into the railing. "I WILL RETURN SOON! CONTINUE YOUR YOUTHFUL TRAINING, YOUNG SAKURA!" Guy's smile came roaring back, then he sprinted off down the wall as though nothing had happened. Sakura stared at his back, her head spinning.

 _He's insane…_

For some reason, the thought made Sakura smile. Shaking her head in disbelief, she kept running. Nothing was going to stop her from running five laps!

The fifth lap flew by – Sakura was getting really late at that point, and she started cursing herself for letting herself get distracted. They had history first thing in the morning, so she didn't particularly care about missing class, but just the _idea_ of being late grated on her. Sure, she had more important things to get done, but Iruka wouldn't understand!

 _Maybe my sensei will be late to everything someday…_

"AHA!"

Guy leaned against the railing at the last turn before the city gates, tossing something orange up and down with one hand. Sakura instantly got a bad feeling. "You again!"

He grinned. "Catch!"

Sakura screeched when four orange things went flying at her head – sure, she caught them on instinct, but that was _rude_ , damnit! She nearly dropped them, too. What the hell? Why did they weigh so much? "HEY!"

"You are most youthful indeed!" Guy exclaimed, jumping down to where Sakura stood. "You must stoke those fires to reach your full potential! Your running is most magnificent, but unfortunately physical chakra can only be generated at the exertion of the runner! Effort is the most important goal!"

Squeezing her eyes shut, Sakura fought through the veneer of exuberance. "Are you telling me I'm training wrong?"

Guy had the decency to look sheepish. "Worry not! You are small! You will improve faster if you wear those weights around your ankles and wrists at all times!"

"Weights?" Sakura murmured. Sure enough, the orange objects all had holes in them. "I hadn't- HEY! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE CALLING SMALL?!"

"That's the spirit!" Guy cheered. "Now, to class, before I drag you there!"

Sakura blinked. She took a good long look at the manic joy in Guy's eyes. Then, she turned tail and started sprinting to the academy, heavy weights in hand. As she ran, she realized a very important fact about them.

"WHY YOU! I DON'T WEAR ORANGEEEEEEE!"

::

Kakashi didn't like the expression on Guy's face one bit when Guy dropped into the armchair next to him in the Jonin Center. No enthusiastic yelling, no challenges, no 'eternal rival' nonsense. The man looked entirely too pleased with himself. "What did you do?" Kakashi asked, trying to keep his voice unworried.

"We shall see," Guy responded, grinning to himself. "I can only hope for the best."

::

"Hey, Sasuke!"

Sasuke sighed in utter irritation when Sakura draped herself over his desk. He had started to get used to her being somewhat erratic. At least she was more interesting than the rest of his fangirls. "So you decided to show up on time today."

Sakura laughed, over-exaggeratedly waving him off. "So..." Sasuke jumped back in his chair when she hoisted her entire leg onto the table, waggling her foot and showing off her wrists to him. "What do you think of my new bracers?"

Sasuke blinked. "They're… very pink."

So they were. Sakura's wrists and ankles were covered by a set of _very_ pink bracers, complete with little stick-on rhinestone sparkle patterns made into hearts and flowers. Tiny little patches of orange were scattered around. The whole operation screamed 'homemade art project.'

"Thank you," Sakura beamed.

"That wasn't a compliment!"

She waved him off, flashing him a grin. "Aw, you love me. I know what you really mean under all that." She waved at his hair, which was looking particularly duck-like.

Sasuke blanched in horror. "I do not!"

"Yeah, sure." Sakura flipped her hair and looked back over her shoulder, smirking a bit. "Then why do you talk to me and not to all of them?"

Sure enough, on the other side of the room, an entire pack of girls was glowering at Sakura, Ino included. Sasuke shivered, not gracing her with an answer, not that she seemed to need one as she walked away, preening in satisfaction. _I don't!_ he protested mentally. _She's just too stubborn to notice!_

"Hn."

And Sasuke would never admit it aloud, but something had shifted that day he had made her cry. Sakura became less and less of a fangirl every day. Sasuke would never – _never –_ let something as lowly as one of his classmates get in the way of his revenge, but…

Maybe, if Sakura kept changing for the better, he wouldn't mind letting her talk to him sometimes.

Maybe it would be nice to have a friend.

::

"YES!"

Naruto couldn't contain his joy. Whooping, he sprinted in circles around the training area, jumping up and down and congratulating himself. The object of his celebration was a strange blob, slightly orange, lying in the center of the training area. His clone sure as hell didn't look like him, but it hadn't blown up yet, and if that wasn't progress, Naruto didn't know what was.

When he finally calmed down, he sat in the middle of the field, exhausted more from the celebration than the actual effort of making a clone. _What now?_ Naruto knew exactly what to do – he had to plan a prank! What better way was there to show the village how awesome he'd gotten?

But what?

 _"_ _Naruto, you're not supposed to push chakra out of your body!"_

A devilish grin split Naruto's face. Maybe he couldn't use his explode-y clones to pass the graduation exam, but Iruka-sensei had never said he couldn't use it for other things! Didn't he say it could be an explosion jutsu? Or – what if the chakra never left his body! Naruto could use it like a henge! Normally, the henge jutsu wouldn't be physical, closer to an illusion over the user, but what if Naruto could combine the two? That would be useful _and_ awesome!

Pushing aside thoughts that maybe using a jutsu that had repeatedly exploded on himself was a bad idea, Naruto cast around for ideas.

What made all the adults get all worked up but wouldn't bring a mob to his doorstep again?

What could bring a full-grown man to his knees in an instant?

What was all of that screaming coming from the baths?

Clueless to the reign of terror he was about to unleash, Naruto trotted off towards the bathhouse, rubbing his hands together in anticipation, an evil prankster grin splitting his face.

::

"Naruto?"

"Shh!" Naruto hissed, waggling his finger at Shikamaru. He crouched in the dirt by the bath's fence, knees in the dirt, his butt sticking up in the air, eye pressed to a little hole in the wood. He was entirely oblivious to the group of three women approaching with furious glares, or Shikamaru's indifferent raised eyebrow. "I'm doing research! This is super duper important, Shikamaru, so don't interrupt me!"

Shikamaru's eye twitched. "Naruto," he said, slowly. "Why are you doing 'research' at the women's baths?"

Naruto looked at Shikamaru, clueless. "For my top-secret new jutsu, duh. Why else would I be here? They don't let me in the baths, anyways, so I dunno what else I would be doing, dattebayo."

"They… don't let you into the baths?" Shikamaru's voice trailed off as the trio of women approached. He wasn't keen on getting yelled at for peeping – or worse, having the matter dragged to Shikaku, who would most likely lecture him on proper decorum _again_. Or he would tell his mother, who would kill Shikamaru, which would settle the whole matter, he supposed. Stepping back into the shadows of a tree, Shikamaru watched them approach Naruto.

Naruto, clueless, shifted into a more comfortable crouch. "Yeah, I bet they'd tell me-"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, BRAT? GET AWAY FROM THERE!"

"IT'S THE DEMON BRAT!"

"PERVERT! THERE'S A PEEPER!"

"KYAAAAA!"

Naruto blanched, ducked under a kick, and shot a cheeky salute at Shikamaru. "Gotta go! See ya, Shikamaru!" He flew through a series of hand signs right as a one of the women moved to grab him, and she found herself holding a handful of mud covered with bathwater suds, which she dropped with a furious shriek.

"Was that a substitution jutsu?" Shikamaru asked himself, scratching his head. He regretted his choice to verbalize his thoughts – the women all turned to him, all of their rage at Naruto latching onto the nearest hapless target. He shrank back against the tree, slumping. _I really need to stop letting other people know what I'm thinking._

"Troublesome..."

::

Sakura laid on her bed, her books arrayed around her, and pressed her feet against the wall. She closed her eyes to breathe, in and out, in and out. Her chakra answered. She felt it as a heat in the back of her neck, a looseness in her spine, the heat at her pressure points that eased her into her mind, her practiced meditation, a directiveness that guided the sluice of power to the delta of her feet, dividing to rivulets and sandbanks, until every vein, every inch of skin, the cells the knit her feet together, floated along the cool river and circulated into the sea's tide. And she _pressed_ , and she was the wall too.

A gasp escaped her lips; they buzzed, involuntarily; her spine arched. Caught off guard, Sakura jerked her feet off the wall, and the sensation went away. She stared at her hot pink bracers on her ankles. _That's what that feels like?_

Closing her eyes again, this time a little more at ease, Sakura pressed her feet back against the wall and didn't stop pushing her chakra through the wood and wallpaper. She tested the feeling, marveling at how she could pull and her feet wouldn't come unattached. She started to slowly – very slowly – walk her feet up the wall. First her legs came off her bed, followed by her hips, her back, and her shoulders, until Sakura was in the uncomfortable situation of balancing on her head with her arms extended, her feet glued to the wall four feet above her head.

"Oh no."

– five minutes later –

"Hhhhgggnnnnnnnhhhhh..." Her abs burning like they'd never burnt before, Sakura fell back down the two inches to the mattress, her head jarring at the collision. She winced and massaged her temples. "Ow."

One more time. One more big effort, and she knew she'd get it. "You got this," she said to herself, clenching her fists. "Walk on that wall."

Sakura managed her full body sit-up for exactly three second of horizontal bliss, at which point the wall gave a horrible cracking noise and broke, sending her tumbling off of her bed and onto the floor with a scream, large chunks of plaster and wallpaper attached to her feet.

"Owww..."

Footsteps echoed from the stairwell. Sakura's mom came barging into the room and skidded to a halt – "Honey, what did you do? The _wall_."

Sakura shot her mom a sheepish smile. "I need to do more sit-ups." _And clearly there's more to wall-walking than I thought._

::

Kakashi Hatake hated his job.

Not the missions, not the duties, not any part of being in ANBU or protecting his village or upholding the Will of Fire. No. He was a ninja, a damn good one at that, and he'd die before affronting the memories of Minato, Obito, and Rin by turning his back on everything they'd sacrificed. Being a ninja had gotten a whole lot lonelier since the Kyuubi had attacked, that much was certain, but Kakashi had, however grudgingly he'd admit it, _friends_ like Gai and… Genma? Maybe? watching his back.

Even if Gai had somehow developed a strange habit of winding up in the civilian district and muttering about the fine flower petals of youth when he thought Kakashi wasn't paying attention. Kakashi didn't want to understand that. Anything that got Gai _thoughtful_ was something to stay far, far away from.

But Kakashi still found nothing as taxing on his nonexistent emotional health than night shifts on the Jinchuriki, aka Naruto Uzumaki.

He looked so like Minato it hurt. Kakashi would sit in the corner under a genjutsu or a henge for hours and watch Naruto, because he couldn't bring himself to leave the room, because he found himself there by habit no differently than the memorial stone, because no matter how much Kakashi searched for similarities, all he found were differences and absence. Differences, because Minato had been cool, calm, a beacon in Kakashi's life when Sakumo wasn't there for him, and Kakashi saw little to none of that in Naruto – only Kushina and a lifetime of hatred and neglect. And absence, because in spite of that, in spite of all the hardship Naruto faced, he was still bright and cheery and a ray of sunshine in Kakashi's life even though Kakashi wasn't there and Naruto didn't. need. him.

Damn Jiraiya for failing his role as godfather. Damn him. Kakashi wanted to test out half a dozen jutsus on the old pervert he'd saved just for the bastard, the next time he got his hands on him. The old Sannin had the power to take care of Naruto and Kakashi didn't – even though he was A rank, even though he topped the lists of Konoha Jonin by power these days. Kakashi's sharingan spun underneath his mask; he tightened his grip around the kunai he had at the ready, forcing himself not to touch his ANBU dog mask.

Tonight, Naruto had decided to go out on the roof for a nice, long sit. For three hours, Kakashi had perched on a vent and stewed in his own thoughts, watching the boy stare at the stars and play with his chakra. Naruto would mutter something under his breath every few minutes, like "gonna be Hokage, 'bayo" or "graduation's gonna be a breeze," then go back to his thoughts.

Yeah, right. Kakashi might not have been privy to _that_ conversation, but he knew Sarutobi would let Naruto graduate as soon as he'd quietly retire and give Danzo the hat. Ten years was too young to put their only Jinchuriki in the field, not with Naruto's manner. The kid was due for disappointment.

Still, Kakashi watched him, and thought to himself, and wished for all the world he could cross that roof and give his old teacher and friend's son a shoulder to lean on.

Not that he would _ever_ let _anyone_ know he had a heart. Gai would never leave his side again.

 _Your kid's doing alright, Minato. Maybe in a year or too, I'll get Hiruzen to let me teach him. And I'm sorry. Sorry I can't do more. Sorry there was no other way to stop the beast._

 _"Those who abandon their friends are worse than trash."_

Under his mask, Kakashi closed his eyes and turned away. _Maybe someday, when he knows everything I've failed to do for him, he'll find a way to forgive me, just like Minato always did._

::

 **[A/N] Hey y'all, first post of 2020. I've gotten sucked deep into my original fiction – novels and the like – so I've been dedicating the majority of my writing time there, but I figured I'd go ahead and stop sitting on what I've written for this one.**

 **Naruto's getting the hand of the Academy Three, which of course he celebrates by inventing Orioke no Jutsu. Poor Sakura might have made the fatal error of catching Gai's attention, but at least she got some nice 20lb leg warmers out of it. And what's that? Sasuke's considering making a ( _gasp_ ) friend? Shocking. Shikamaru gets a faceful of anti-Naruto prejudice, Iruka's a damn good teacher, Sarutobi is tired, and Kakashi needs a headpat.**

 **Does anyone else want to touch Kakashi's hair all the time? It looks so fluffy. I bet he gets great headpats from Gai, right before trying to kill him.**

 **Next chapter – Sakura likes reading on the ceiling, Naruto takes his shiny new jutsu out for a swing, Shino chose a bad day to come to school, and Shikamaru makes a big choice.**

 **Later, Allie**


	4. Train With Me

Train With Me

Allison Illuminated

::

 **Academy IV**

::

Sakura sat in a lotus pose, keeping her back straight as she read from her new book 'Theories of Chakra: Mental, Physical, and the Balance Between.' Her sparkly pink weighted bracers twinkled from the light of her desk lamp. She made her way intently through the book, making connections to her exercises, feeling the smooth flow of chakra through her muscles as she worked, absorbing every little detail.

Like the fact that clan children were taught fundamental meditation techniques from the moment they learned to crawl. Or that a severe imbalance in mental and physical chakra while using jutsu can, and often did, lead to permanent damage. The author was vague, but Sakura could see underneath the underneath.

It wasn't an inability to learn that stopped so many civilian ninja. It wasn't even the barriers, prohibitive barriers, of navigating the politics of ninja without a clan.

No. Civilians didn't have the preparation necessary to channel chakra.

They burned out their chakra coils in training and limited their growth, leading to hard caps in ability and a lifetime of service in the Genin Corps. Some didn't meet the physical standards of the clans. Some didn't have the spiritual training. The common thread, a realization that came as a gut punch to Sakura, was a lack of education about the _nature_ of chakra. Civilians were told all about the enemies of Konoha and the dangers being a ninja posed, but never, not even in the Academy, were they informed the greatest danger was to themselves.

That information was withheld.

Deliberately.

Or, at least, Sakura thought. She knew ninja were too smart to overlook such a basic danger. The only conceivable reasons they weren't warned were either because the Academy was _supposed_ to protect its students, in which case the teachers were complicit, or because someone, somewhere, wanted civilian ninja to fail.

The thought made Sakura's blood boil.

 _Every time I did a chakra exercise, every time I put a leaf to my forehead or a pebble on my palm, I jeopardized my future._ She closed her eyes, fighting not to give into her anger. Her inner voice raged and railed at everything – her teachers, chakra, the Hokage – but beneath her rage, she felt a deep fear. Discovering chakra had been a wake-up call to her, but also a blessing, a warmth, a constant source of strength and comfort in her life; to think that at any moment the energy that ran through her body could break because of someone else's negligence hurt her soul.

She exhaled and turned the page.

Once Sakura had let go of her anger, replacing it with a simple determination – _I am a civilian, but I_ won't _fail_ – she turned to a more pressing question. If she had been putting her chakra coils in danger, why hadn't she inadvertently harmed them during her training? Sakura had had a _severe_ deficit in physical chakra.

Through research, Sakura found only one answer that made sense. It explained why her exercises came natural; how she could be so far ahead of the curve despite her civilian upbringing.

Sakura had near-perfect chakra control.

The thought was thrilling, and sent a shiver of righteous vindication through her body. She _deserved_ to be on the same level as the clan kids – she had a skill ninja prized, and she would work twice as hard if that was what it took to prove it. Konoha's attitude toward civilian ninjas stank of bullying, and Sakura _hated_ bullies. This was about more than Shikamaru or Naruto or Sasuke-kun now.

 _I'll prove them all wrong. I'll become the best ninja in our year, and they'll have to see that holding back information is stupid and wrong! What's the point in having school if it doesn't teach you what you can find in books?_

 _And_ Sakura would do it all in pink! She really did like her bracers – she'd have to thank Guy…

Never let it be said that Sakura Haruno didn't have a competitive streak a mile wide.

The door cracked open, and Sakura's mom peered in with a frown. "Sakura, honey? Why… are you on the ceiling?"

So she was. Sakura gave her mom, who was hanging from the floor, an exasperated look. "I'm _reading_ , Mom," she said, holding up her book.

"And why are you reading on the ceiling?"

Sakura gave a shark-grin. "Justice."

She didn't need to date Sasuke-kun. No, that was too simple. Too much of something Ino would do, even though Ino was her friend again. Sakura liked Sasuke better now that he actually acknowledged her anyways, and he'd only started doing that after she shifted her focus from him to chakra.

Sakura's new goal was to _beat_ Sasuke.

::

It was a typical Academy morning. Sasuke slunk into class early and sat in his usual seat, hands folded in front of his face, ignoring the meaningless conversations of his classmates and the giggling of his fangirls. He watched Iruka chalk up the daily lesson and brooded, thinking of nothing in particular, waiting for class to start. Luckily, today was a day the fangirls seemed more interested with each other than with him. Thank god. Sasuke had an empty seat on either side of him, and nobody to bother him.

Right as Iruka was about to begin class, Sakura skipped into the room, cheerfully oblivious to her tardiness, and Iruka didn't even blink. She wore her usual awful hot pink sparkly bracers and one of her darker outfits, a well-fit black jacket with pink highlights and pants, which, while garish and obnoxious, at least made her look like a ninja. She sauntered up the aisle and sat down next to Sasuke like she belonged there, ignoring the shouts of protest from the other fangirls.

Sasuke sighed. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, grinning a sharp grin that made Sasuke shiver. Did he like this new Sakura? She was a lot less annoying, but a lot scarier. She reminded him of the clan elders before-

His thoughts came to a screeching halt; he shut down; Sasuke turned away from Sakura, eyes narrowing, and grunted. "Hn."

Sasuke's dismissal of Sakura didn't seem to matter. Sakura sent him a sweet smile and pulled a tome the size of her head out of her pack, dropping it on the table with a thump. Nonchalant, ignoring Iruka, she started to read. _Annoying,_ Sasuke thought. _She used to go away when I ignored her._

 _Why is she so confusing?_

"Why are you always reading?" he blurted out.

Tapping her cheek, Sakura flipped a page. "Iruka-sensei says good ninjas play to their strengths, right? I'm not the best at taijustu or with shurikens or kunai, but I'm really good on tests and stuff. So I read a lot so I can know enough to make up the difference."

Sasuke frowned, thoughtful. He knew he had to be better than the best at everything, to kill that certain man. Admitting weakness was worse than defeat. True, he already thought Sakura was weak, but maybe weak people could pretend to be strong if they hid their weaknesses. "What good are books?" he asked harshly.

Sakura smirked. She flipped the book shut, placed her palm on it, and lifted. Sasuke didn't _stare_ – he _watched_ with- with- _tactical appreciation_ as the entire textbook stuck to Sakura's palm. "They taught me how to do this."

Sasuke shivered again, inching away from Sakura. Sakura might be weak, but she was also _scary_. And, somehow, the only person he talked to in the class. Almost like a friend.

Not that he needed friends. He was a lone avenger; his life was sworn to kill his brother. Avengers didn't have time for friends.

"Tch."

Sakura beamed.

"Hey everybody! Guess what?"

Naruto bounced into the room, hollering at the top of his lungs, interrupting Iruka midway through a sentence. Iruka facepalmed. Jumping onto a table, Naruto jabbed a thumb at his chest, a self-satisfied expression plastered over his face.

 _Great, the dead-last,_ Sasuke thought. _This should be good_.

Sakura's textbook fell down on the table as she jumped to her feet, making a fist at Naruto. "Naruto, you idiot, get off the table! Iruka-sensei's trying to teach!"

"You're not even paying attention," Ino grumbled from the next row over.

"Sakura-chan! Go on a date with me!"

"No!"

"Hey!" Iruka's voice cut across the classroom. Iruka hit the table, giving Naruto a death glare. "We're in the middle of class! Naruto, say your piece and get off the table!"

Puffing out his chest, Naruto declared, "You're looking at the next Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, cause I'm graduating early! I'm gonna be the greatest Hokage anyone's ever seen, dattebayo!"

There was silence.

 _Naruto… is graduating early?_

The entire class burst out into a round of hysterical laughter, sending Naruto stumbling back off the desk and landing with his butt on the floor. Sakura was loudest of all. Sasuke didn't laugh, but even he couldn't hold back a smile, one that slipped away when he recognized the poorly-concealed hurt on Naruto's face. Naruto was pathetic. But what little esteem Sakura had garnered for herself since walking in the door evaporated at the malicious glee on her face at Naruto's embarrassment. It was an ugly look on her.

Frowning, Sasuke looked away. Sakura wasn't like the rest of the girls, but she was no saint. Mocking others who were weaker was foolish. Sasuke disliked people who gained strength to prey on others – he didn't care enough about Sakura to be upset, but there was a twinge of disappointment.

Curious. Sasuke wanted Sakura to be better. Rare as it was for him to want anything other than Itachi's death, he took notice of the feeling so he could root it out and crush it.

The only other person in the room who didn't laugh was Shikamaru. The Nara heir sat in the back of the room, watching Naruto with thoughtful, conflicted eyes. Knowing eyes. Shikamaru had more information than Sasuke, and he _knew_ something about Naruto Sasuke didn't, which also irked him; either that, or Shikamaru had developed a soft spot for the idiot, a prospect Sasuke found distasteful. Nara was better than that.

Everything seemed designed to annoy Sasuke today.

 _Not like I care._

Breathless from laughing, Sakura slumped back in her seat, flexing her arms beneath her dark, pink-lined sleeves, and gave Sasuke a blinding smile. Sakura didn't even see her hatred for what it was. She was so…

"What are you smiling at me for?" Sasuke muttered, glaring at Sakura for being confusing.

Sakura flipped her pink hair. "I had a funny thought," she said. "For a second, I almost compared myself to Naruto." She said it so nonchalantly Sasuke almost missed the way her eyes flicked to Naruto, walking in shame to his seat near Shikamaru, and her lips thinned.

 _She meant it._

And that, Sasuke thought, was the scariest revelation of all.

::

When Shikamaru laid on his favorite grassy hillside and watched the clouds, he always had lot on his mind.

The curse of a busy mind, his mother called it. All the Naras had the same troubles; an abundance of thought, an overactive mind, and a world of troublesome people who didn't know better than to disturb their thinking. He was lazy because he was already occupied; he slacked off because he already knew the answers. In many ways, the Nara compound reflected their state of mind – deep and withdrawn, a forest within Konoha's walls, the deer as fleeting and elusive as his train of thought.

Shikamaru was only ten, but already he had begun to develop the formidable intellect and cunning of his father, Shikaku. Once he had tried to convince Shikaku to allow him to graduate early from the Academy.

"I'm bored, Father," Shikamaru had said, fighting to keep himself calm. "What's the _point_ if I already know half of what we learn, and the other half the clan forbids me to do until I learn Kagemane? If I graduate, I can help the village. The clan will allow me to learn our style. I can be like you and help the village, and as a Genin-"

"Enough." Shikaku had given Shikamaru a hard look. They'd been playing shogi after Shikamaru had come home frustrated and angry, letting Shikamaru unspool his frustrations into the game. He'd played sloppy. Missed things. "Do you know _why_ we don't allow children to graduate early anymore?"

"Yeah, yeah. After the Uchiha Massacre-"

"No." Shikaku moved his piece, snapping it down on the wooden board. "Itachi Uchiha was a part, yes. But the answer you aren't seeing runs deeper. When our village was founded on the Will of Fire, the First Hokage envisioned a future where the ninja clans of the Fire Nation could coexist in peace, shaping a better future for those who followed. All clan children fought during the Warring Clans era, some as young as seven, five, our children among them. But the world is changing. We don't let children into the field because we don't have to, because we have the luxury of letting our children stay children a little longer. Because our understand of the mind has progressed, and we understand the destructive impacts our lifestyle has on a child's psyche. Itachi Uchiha gave the Sandaime the opportunity to make the change. You are lucky, Shikamaru, to come of age in a more peaceful world."

"But we aren't at peace. Anyone with eyes can see that," Shikamaru protested.

He made a foolish move, poorly conceived, and Shikaku capitalized on his advantage immediately. "But can we afford war? _Think_ , Shikamaru. Why won't Konoha graduate you early?"

Hands balled up on his knees, Shikamaru stared hard at the board. "The Kyuubi attack. We lost the Fourth and our manpower, and we had to rebuild. Then the Uchiha were massacred and we lost our strongest clan. Our position is… weak."

"Your year has more clan heirs than any in a long time," Shikaku said. He gestured over his pawns. "Nara. Akiminchi. Yamanaka. Uchiha. Hyuuga. Aburame. Inuzaka. Our strength. Should you all reach your true potential, Konoha will not be in a weak position any longer, but until you are strong enough to stand up in the face of a world that wishes our village harm, you must be _protected._ Kumo would stop at nothing to steal a bloodline, and Suna and Iwa wouldn't hesitate to see you dead. You must be strong, and that is a strength which can only come with _time_. Patience is essential."

"But…"

Shikaku raised an eybrow at his son. "But what?"

"What if that's not how we grow strong? What if the Will of Fire has to be _tapped_? I _hate_ the idea that the best we can do is nothing," Shikamaru said, his voice rising, a flush of feeling rising to his cheeks. Feeling childish, he looked away, letting the outburst sink in with his father, his thoughts racing.

"Shikamaru." Blushing, Shikamaru looked at his father – Shikaku returned it with grave consideration. "You are a Nara," Shikaku said gently. "I know you're speaking from your heart, but it's not in our nature to step ahead of the line. We work from the shadows. Our minds are our greatest service to our village; even our jutsu, the Kagemane, requires focus and dedication, quiet study. I know you feel you could do more, but you cannot."

"What if I disagree?" Shikamaru asked, mustering the last of his resistance.

"You are at the Academy to learn," Shikaku said, his tone turning dismissive. Shikamaru recognized it well. It was his father's Jonin Commander voice; the voice he used when he grew sick of an argument. "Your chakra has not developed enough to use the Kagemane – I will not teach you until you turn twelve, and you will not enter the field until you learn. Your responsibility as the clan heir dictates that you need to learn the non-combat lessons and forge connections with the other clan heirs. I am not telling you to be passive. I am telling you to apply yourself. Learn the ways of social interaction, notice the patterns among your classmates as they develop, and you will have done more for our clan and village in the long run than you ever would on a genin team at this age."

Shikamaru looked away. "Yes, Father."

Shikaku sighed. "Troublesome. Shikamaru… You have too much of your mother; her passion, her fire, but also her stubbornness. This is a matter of strategic necessity. To bear the mantle of our clan, to continue the next generation of Shika-Ino-Cho is a burden, but one that you _will_ find is worth it."

He hadn't answered. Shikamaru had withdrawn into his own head, staring at the wall until his father rose, recognizing the end of the game, and walked away, giving Shikamaru space. Sometimes Shikamaru imagined he hadn't returned to the world since.

The orange and pink sunset stretched across the clouds, painting the sky in brilliant colors. The grass whistled around him in the wind, brushing his folded hands, directing his gaze skyward. Shikamaru traced where the constellations would be. He waited for the stars to fade into existence. Cicada chirped under the light of a full moon, round and huge, rising in the south over Konoha's dusty treeline.

 _Will Naruto really graduate early?_ He didn't believe Naruto would for a moment, even if his test scores had been quietly creeping upward for months, even if Naruto could do a successful henge and substitution. Naruto had surpassed him, even – the kid everyone called 'dead last' was no longer the dead last. That was Shikamaru, now, although he intended to improve his test performance to pawn _that_ unflattering position to Kiba. No. Naruto wouldn't pass. Shikamaru could say that with absolute certainty.

But Naruto was changing. It was as though a fire had been lit beneath Naruto, kicking him into high gear. The only other person in the class whose growth was comparative was Sakura Haruno, who had managed to all-but-kick her fangirl label, worm her way into a friendship with Sasuke, and open up a yawning gap as the top kunoichi in their class.

Shikamaru knew the difference between correlation and causation. He still had a sinking suspicion the odd encounter he'd had with both Naruto and Sakura several months earlier was somehow responsible for their newfound determination. He hadn't meant to cause such a disruption in the fabric of his class… had he?

Had he?

He didn't put effort in. He watched clouds and napped and played shogi. In spite of that, in spite of the way he portrayed himself to, well, everyone, Shikamaru felt an odd and warm appreciation for Naruto and the fact that he was trying. Naruto was so _enthusiastic_.

How could he be so enthusiastic?

Shikamaru had started truly paying attention to his new friend – and he could not call Naruto anything less than a friend. He watched Naruto train, but he also watched Naruto dodge angry civilians and ignore harassment and get shut out of stores. By tracking Naruto around the village, Shikamaru had developed a suspicion that Naruto lived in the seediest part of town, the Red Light district. Naruto was an orphan and a loner. Shikamaru was, as far as he could tell, Naruto's only friend; perhaps Choji too by extension. There were too many oddities about Naruto. They'd all come to a head when Shikamaru had caught Naruto fleeing a group of angry villagers on October 10th – villagers screaming for the death of the 'demon brat' and the 'fox spawn.' Before that day, Shikamaru had never taken note of the whisker birthmarks on Naruto's cheeks. Now he did. The kicker was when, after Shikamaru had walked Naruto home to, confirmed, the Red Light district, Naruto had admitted that October 10th was also his birthday.

Somehow, Shikamaru deduced, Naruto was connected to the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox. Somehow, Naruto was important. When he was with Naruto, he almost saw flickers out of the corner of his eye. Naruto had an absurd overabundance of chakra and could not injure himself. He called the Sandaime _jiji_.

Shikamaru didn't care who or what Naruto was. What Shikamaru did care about were the incredible circumstances that seemed to be arrayed against the blond, and Shikamaru found himself rooting, passionately, for Naruto to succeed. He wanted Naruto to graduate early. He wanted Naruto to prove himself to the village and to become the Fifth Hokage. He even wanted, in a secret, selfish corner of his heart, for Naruto to succeed because of his help – Shikamaru wanted to feel _involved_ for once, to operate outside of the shadows, to overcome his laziness for something more important no matter how troublesome it was for him.

As Naruto climbed the class ranks, Shikamaru rooted for him. He wished for Naruto's success. He wished he could be the cause of Naruto's success, even though he knew he wasn't. Naruto had held that potential all along.

A cloud twisted in the sky. Shikamaru pushed down a strange, foreign feeling – _disappointment_ – that he was getting by at the bottom instead of fighting his way to the top, and he was content.

Sort of.

 _He won't pass. But I could help him pass. Iruka-sensei stopped giving him private lessons, but even just a study partner would be all Naruto needs. But I can't. Father wouldn't permit it, wouldn't allow me to learn the Academy Three yet, even if it were just in theory._

Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose, almost unable to believe he was contemplating taking on so much extra work. That he _wanted_ it.

"Shikamaru?" Choji walked up the hill, giving Shikamaru a tentative look. Shikamaru pushed himself into a sitting position – Choji had his nicer clothes on and no food in hand, and Ino stood impatiently at the bottom of the hill, tapping her foot. "Are you coming?" Choji asked. "We have to go to dinner. You said you'd be back ten minutes ago."

Shikamaru sighed, running a hand through his spiky hair. _There you go again, Naruto, giving me another headache._ "Yeah, alright, fine. Where are we going again?"

"Barbecue, moron!" Ino yelled. "Do you have _anything_ but clouds up there, Pineapple Head?"

Hiding his frown, Shikamaru rolled his eyes and got to his feet. He thrust his hands into his pockets. Contemplated the sunset.

 _Shika-Ino-Cho. This is my future._

 _It would be so easy to stay the course – I could do nothing and my life would fall into place._

Choji and Ino both watched him with matching knowing looks. "There you go again," Choji said. "Always lost in thought."

Shikamaru gave Choji a little smile that he didn't mean and descended the hill. Pushing his musings aside, he shot Ino a flat look, bumping her shoulder. "Napping is nice too," he said, pushing past Ino's outrage. "And my thoughts are very important."

"Why, you!"

Choji laughed and followed his bickering friends off to diner.

Naruto was an outcast. Sakura was a civilian. They both had something to prove, a drive that, once awoken, would carry them further, if only because they had to carve their paths out for themselves.

Shikamaru had nothing to prove.

He would become who he had to be, in the mold of his father and ancestors before him, for the good of Konoha. Naruto would have to walk his own road.

 _the back of his mind wondered, unless…_

::

Sakura wavered at the entrance to the Jonin Headquarters, her fist staying over the door, afraid to knock and face every jonin in the village. But there was nothing to be done. Taking a deep breath, she rapped her knuckles against the door.

To her deep relief, the door was answered by Might Guy, exactly who she was looking for. Even better, the common room behind him was empty.

"Young Sakura!" Guy exclaimed, staring down at her in surprise. "I did not expect to see you here today! Might I ask how I may help you?"

Sakura tittered nervously, remembering Ino's rantings about the green-clad man. _Confidence, Sakura,_ her inner voice reminded her. Sometimes Sakura wondered if she was actually crazy. There were times when her inner voice almost acted as a different person… _and_ Guy still stood there waiting for her to say something.

"Actually, um, I was looking for you, Guy-san," Sakura said.

"Really? YOSH!" Gai looked entirely more smug at that than Sakura thought he had a right to, and she scowled. "The pink blossom most youthfully seeks me out!" He grinned. "You found me."

 _Oh, did I find you._ Sakura fought down the part of her that found Guy endearing – _Ino says he's_ crazy, _remember_ – and tried to focus. She held out her pink bracers. "You gave me these," she said, blunt. "And I went to the store but they're all the same model, which means they're chakra adjustable. And I tried to, but I couldn't figure out how to make them heavier. So I was…"

She trailed off.

Guy's eyes had lit up for a moment in victorious satisfaction and a deeply intelligent evaluation. Then, it was buried as Guy stared off into the distance and exclaimed at the top of his lungs, "YOU TRULY ARE IN THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH! LOOK AT HOW IT FLOWERS-" Sakura could almost picture him looking out into an imaginary sunset.

"HEY!" she screamed, matching Guy in volume. Guy shut up, cowed, and looked down at her as Sakura glared at him. "I came to you for help! Not for you to be weird! If you're gonna ignore me then I'll go somewhere else!"

Sakura regretted her temper as soon as the words left her mouth. In truth, she _didn't_ have somewhere else to go. Guy was the only ninja who'd ever expressed any interest in helping her other than her teachers, and she didn't want to _alienate_ him. Her regret must have shown on her face, because Guy's expression softened and he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Of course I will help you, most youthful Sakura," Guy said. "I'm most impressed with your artful additions to your bracers – pink is an excellent color, although I prefer orange and green! They go quite well with your outfit and hair!" He gave her a thumbs-up, and she blushed, not used to getting complimented by anyone but her parents.

"Can you show me how to make them heavier?" Sakura asked, trying to inject confidence into her plaintive tone.

"Of course," Guy said. "Shall we go to a training ground?"

Sakura nodded decisively. "We shall," she said loftily, puffing herself up to match Guy's bravado.

"Then onward!"

One pair of eyes watched them go from the shadows. Naruto Uzumaki grinned as he threw on a henge, hefted his two super-size cans of neon orange paint, and ran to catch the door to the Jonin Headquarters before it could lock behind Guy.

::

In truth, Naruto hadn't even intended to paint the entire Jonin Headquarters orange.

He had followed Sakura out of the Academy, hoping to track Sakura down and ask her for a date. Naruto's crush on his classmate had only grown since Sakura had stopped pining after that _idiot_ Sasuke and started getting awesome. Naruto hadn't exactly meant to stalk her, but how else was he supposed to get her alone? Sakura was always with Ino or Sasuke or the other kids – she was always nicer to Naruto when they were alone. Marginally.

But Naruto would take whatever he could get, dattebayo!

Sakura didn't go to the civilian quarter, though; Naruto always stopped following her when she headed home, because he wasn't a creep. He wouldn't want a girl like Sakura to know where _he_ lived. She turned and headed past the abandoned Senju compound toward the center of town. Curious, Naruto followed.

He didn't recognize the building, but Sakura did. Sakura stopped at the door and knocked and a ninja Naruto didn't recognize stepped out. He _was_ wearing orange, though, so he couldn't be that bad. Sakura showed the ninja her arms – did she have a sunburn – and they walked away together, right as Naruto had a great idea. If the ninja had been inside the building, then it must be important! And if it was important, then Naruto could prank it!

Flawless logic.

Even better, he could practice his jutsu for his test.

Inside there were lots of couches and a big communal table, plus a long hallway with offices in the back. Naruto ignored the living room and went straight for the offices, jumping at the chance to figure out what the building was. He opened the door to someone's office – who was ' _Morino Ibiki?' –_ and started rifling through some papers. He ignored the boring stuff. Blah, blah, brewing genocidal tensions in Kiri, yadda yadda, Orochimaru sighting in Iron Country, blah, blah, blah, jinchuriki energies detected in Waterfall… What the heck was a jinchuriki or an Orochimaru? Whatever. Naruto didn't care. He was still so proud of his ability to piece together basic passages, his new reading skill, that he didn't mind when a word or three escaped him.

Finally he found a memo that said 'to the Jonin Headquarters,' and he grinned. _The Jonin Headquarters! Jonin are super strong – this is perfect!_

Dropping his henge, Naruto pried open his cans of paint and cracked his knuckles. _Maybe I can use a clone to help!_ Making the handsigns, he cried, "Clone Jutsu!"

His clone appeared in a poof of smoke. A crippled, warped blob of orange and yellow appeared on the floor, moaning in pain. Naruto cringed and dispelled it.

At least it hadn't exploded.

It didn't matter! He could do it all himself!

Twenty minutes later, when the green ninja and another ninja with spiky silver hair walked in on Naruto, Naruto had already painted the entire common room bright orange. He dropped the paintbrush, blinking at the jonin. The jonin stared back.

"Very orange," the spiky silver-haired one said. "I'm going to take you to the Hokage now-"

Naruto's wicked grin was the only warning the two jonin got.

"SEXY JUTSU!"

Wreathed in clouds of smoke, a nude, teenaged, well-endowed, _female_ Naruto winked flirtatiously at the jonin like he'd watched the women at bars do, making the weird sound he heard when he passed by the stores with all the naked people. It felt weird to change his body, but it was so much easier than the Clone Jutsu. Naruto didn't even mind the extra weight or height. Putting a finger to his lips, his arm accidentally pressing his chest things together, Naruto winked at the jonin.

The silver-haired one fainted. The green one stared vacantly at the wall, a trickle of blood running down his lip.

 _It worked!_ Naruto thought triumphantly. _Now, my awesome getaway!_

He made the hand signs. "Substitution jutsu!"

As a parting gift, Naruto swapped places with his last bucket of paint, drenching Kakashi and Guy in orange. He collapsed into the bushes and died of laughter, then started hopping across the rooftops toward his best hiding spot, knowing that someone would catch up to him before long.

::

Sarutobi pushed his crystal ball away and placed his face in his hands.

"Naruto…"

::

Sakura stood next to Ino in a crowd of girls, waiting nervously to hear the sparring pairings for the day. Her muscles were burning already, but it was a good burn – her usual five-lap morning run, core routine, and chakra channeling regime, plus obstacle course practice in class earlier. She was ready to fight. She could be paired against anyone – as the top kunoichi Iruka put her against boys often to help her improve – but she hoped it was Sasuke-kun. She knew it was Sasuke-kun. She wanted to fight Sasuke-kun.

"Sakura vs. Sasuke," Iruka called, bored.

"YES!"

Sakura jumped up, pumping a fist, and jogged over to the battlefield. All of the girls stared at her like she was insane – most of them somewhere between 'why would you want to hit Sasuke-sama' and 'you are going to die.' Ino, in particular, boggled at Sakura. "You _want_ to fight Sasuke?"

She grinned, rolling her shoulders. She'd worn good fighting clothes and her headband today and it was totally going to pay off.

Sasuke slouched onto the field, giving Sakura a strange look, not so different from the look his fangirls were giving her. "I don't understand you," he muttered, settling into a combat pose.

Sakura didn't care about the glances, or whether Sasuke understood her. She was all focused on fighting. In the past, Sakura had cared more about her makeup and clothes than what they did during the combat parts of class, but now she had higher goals, goals which required good taijutsu. Sakura wasn't strongest or fastest, but she was the smartest. Fighting smart meant focusing. Focusing meant Sasuke.

She kept her bracers on.

"Okay!" Iruka stepped up, looking from Sakura to Sasuke. "You guys know the drill. Taijutsu only, first one to knock the other out of the ring or earn a surrender wins. Try to use what we've been working on in class. Ready?"

"Yes!" Sakura shouted. Sasuke grunted.

"Alright, begin!"

The first thing you needed to know about Sasuke Uchiha if you intended to fight him was he was fast.

Incredibly fast.

See, what Sakura appreciated about Sasuke, perhaps more than anyone, or at least on par with the other girls in the class, was that he was _awesome_ when it came to fighting. Sakura hadn't spent years fangirling over Sasuke not to know his strengths. He moved with a fluid grace that wiped away his sullen and dark personality, replacing it with a graceful, beautiful mirage of violent combat. He could whip a kick around in seconds – Sakura barely dodged it – then pivot in midair to launch another at his opponent's face – she rolled away, panting.

No time limit. A captive audience. Nothing but hard rules and combat. She had all the time before Sasuke booted her in the face to test the waters.

The second thing about Sasuke Uchiha was that he noticed everything, and he had the sharp intellect to piece little quirks and movements together into deadly vulnerabilities in moments.

Sakura jumped to her feet and struck back, stepping in close for a punch that missed, kicking, then feigning a reverse kick to land a light punch on Sasuke's chest. It didn't even stop his momentum. Two days earlier, Sakura had collided with an unsuspecting chunin on patrol on her run and fell against the wall, bruising her arm – the punch brought the bruise into range. Without a second thought, Sasuke unloaded the full force of his momentum into a kick that collided with the bruise, sending Sakura tumbling backward, crying out in pain.

She hit the ground hard, rolling; she caught herself with a chakra-infused hand to stop herself from leaving the ring, earning a murmur from the crowd, and flung herself to the side to avoid getting stomped on. Sasuke's eyes were dark and emotionless. There was no sign of the uneasy camaraderie they shared in class, no heart, no connection. He felt nothing for her. There was only the fight, and Sakura had made Sasuke her enemy.

Her old feelings flared with hurt, but she forced them down. Ducking and weaving, the fighting reaching nearly the twenty-second mark, Sakura forced herself to _think_.

The third thing you needed to know about Sasuke – if you intended to fight him and _win_ – was that he was arrogant. Oh, so arrogant. He was a loner, top of the class, so far removed from his peers the distance _appeared_ insurmountable. Sasuke would always believe he could do it himself.

Alone.

Sakura hadn't seen it when Sasuke had been her heartthrob. She'd barely noticed as his tentative friend. But breaking free of her shell and becoming a true ninja had led Sakura to some hard truths about herself, and one of them had been her blindness toward the Last Uchiha. She couldn't fight Sasuke blind. So she'd looked – really _looked_ – at the most important person in her life, and Sakura had been ashamed to find she didn't know Sasuke at all.

She didn't know Sasuke. And Sasuke would never have loved her – not like she was then, not like she was now – because of it.

But Sakura knew Sasuke enough to exploit his most outward and obvious flaw.

"Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke!" the girls cheered. They'd started once they realized it would be a real fight. They got louder when Sasuke slammed Sakura down into the dirt, covering her jacket and hair in dust and dirt and filth, muddying her perfect pink, her bracer jarring her wrist painfully. But he couldn't pin her. She was elusive, clawing back to her feet. Sakura feigned exhaustion, noticing that Ino wasn't cheering for Sasuke, and let Sasuke think he had won. She wound up for one last kick, Sasuke going for the easy counter-

 _Gotcha._

Like fire, chakra rushed to her right fist.

She spun, catching Sasuke off his guard, and slammed an overpowered punch into his side. Sasuke went flying. He flipped in midair, landing semi-gracefully, his face contorting in pain, and rose to hit her back – outside of the ring.

Sasuke stared at the white line on the wrong side of his feet.

So did everyone else.

Iruka blinked, gawking at Sakura, and cleared his throat. "Uh… Sakura wins!"

There was more dead silence, then everyone in the class erupted at once. Ino squealed and threw herself at Sakura, wrapping Sakura up in a tight hug, and Sakura laughed, hardly able to believe she'd pulled it off. Naruto cheered and Iruka gave her a look that was somewhere between proud and bewildered and one of the girls started crying.

Sakura released Ino and, before he had a chance to evade, hugged Sasuke. "I did it!" she exclaimed as people shrieked and Sasuke stiffened like he'd never been hugged before. Sakura didn't care. She was just so _happy_ -

Sasuke shoved his way out of Sakura's embrace, sending Sakura stumbling back, her eyes widening in hurt. Sasuke's shoulders shook; he curled his hands into fists and _looked_ at Sakura. He looked at _her_ for the first time, but it wasn't the look of quiet affection or smoldering passion Sakura had always dreamed of, and she felt her crush, the idealized image of Sasuke she held so close to her heart, shatter irrevocably into a million little pieces. Sasuke's eyes were filled with a cold anger, an unbridled hatred, a malice born from years of pain and isolation all directed at _her_. And Sakura froze, couldn't move, because in spite of it all her world still turned on the words that came out of his mouth.

"Don't touch me."

Sakura flinched. Her eyes welled with tears – how could she be so stupid, _no,_ so stupid that she could let his words turn her emotions inside out in an instant.

Sasuke walked past her and stopped with his shoulder to hers, speaking back over his shoulder. "You haven't changed at all," he said in a cold tone, flat and quiet. "This is no different than all the other times. You're pathetic."

He left. Iruka didn't stop him.

Standing in the circle of her classmates, a tear trickling down her cheek, the hollow victory boring out her chest, Sakura felt her resolve and her emotions harden. She… She was a kunoichi. She beat the strongest fighter in her class on her own strength. Even if it had cost her one of her two friends. If Sasuke had ever been her friend at all.

 _He wasn't, was he? All this time…_

 _It was all in my head._

 _Give him up, Sakura. You don't need him._ We're _better than him._

 _We- We are?_

 _Yeah,_ Inner said, and Sakura trembled as her chakra _flexed_ , coursing through her veins. _We are._

 _Oh._ Sakura smiled, brittle, and she let her chakra run faster. She blinked her tears away. _We are. We beat him. This is what I wanted, isn't it?_

"Sakura?" Ino asked, reaching out a tentative hand. She was the only one in the class brave enough to approach her – everyone else stayed back and gawked, at a complete loss for what to say. Sakura could imagine they would be; she'd been miles closer to Sasuke than anyone else, and he'd dismissed her like she was nothing. Their dreams must be falling apart. Sakura's had.

She felt… broken.

"I'm fine, Ino," Sakura said. She wiped away her tears and gave a fake smile. "Sasuke can be a bit of a bastard, can't he? Good thing I beat him."

"Yeah," Ino agreed, her voice shaking. "Screw him."

Sakura nodded, letting Ino tug her away from the battlefield and into the Academy building, where there would be nobody else to watch her humiliation. "Yeah," she echoed. "Screw him."

Somewhere deep within her mind, where there was another presence not her own, a deep vibration came. Inner agreed.

::

Naruto wasn't supposed to be nervous. He'd trained, he'd prepared, his clone jutsu was semi-functional. But, stepping into a room full of students two years older than himself, nervous he was.

"You'll do fine. You've come a long way in a short time," Iruka had said. "I believe in you, Naruto," Teuchi had said. "For the last time, Naruto, putting hair dye in my shampoo is not the best way to get my attention!" Jiji had said.

He swung the doors open and stepped into the room, which was filled with graduating students gathered in clusters, chatting and laughing and preparing for the test. Naruto slipped inside, feeling rather intimidated and uncharacteristically shy, kept to the edges of the room, approaching the test proctor. It wasn't Iruka-sensei.

"You are?" the proctor asked.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

The procotor raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "Noted. Wait with the others."

Getting laughed at by his entire class was bad. In some ways, Naruto decided sitting in that room, waiting for his graduation test to begin, surrounded not by his peers but by older students, far more prepared and confident than he, in _silence_ , was worse. The minutes stretched on. Nobody spoke to him or acknowledged him, save a whisper or a glance.

 _When I'm Hokage, they'll all respect me,_ Naruto thought miserably, kneading his fists against his knees. _They'll see._

Nobody came to Naruto's rescue. He was alone.

The first stage of the graduation exam was the written component. Naruto took his test seriously, carefully reading through the questions and finding, to his incredible relief, that he knew some of the answers – in large part because he could read the questions. The anxiety turned his stomach, and he fought to keep tears from his eyes, tears of gratitude toward Iruka. He didn't have to vocabulary to express how he felt, but Naruto knew he had been given a gift by his teacher he could never repay. He left some questions blank, and guessed on others, but more often than not, he could circle the answer he thought was correct and move on.

The obstacle course was easy. It was just like running away from the guards after a good prank, and Naruto snuck in a middling time, ahead of many of the older kids. The spark of hope and determination rekindled in his chest. He could do this! He would show everyone that Naruto Uzumaki had to be taken seriously!

Kunai were easy. Shuriken were harder. In Taijutsu, Naruto even managed to beat his opponent, a civilian boy who seemed to meek to fight Naruto properly.

Finally, Naruto reached the last part of his exam: the jutsu demonstration. His palms sweating, he entered the final exam room and came face-to-face with Iruka-sensei, who sat at a table with three other ninjas holding a clipboard. Iruka smiled at Naruto as he entered. "Naruto Uzumaki. You will display three jutsu. First, please show us your henge."

Naruto nodded. His hands flew through the signs, and he cried, "Transformation Jutsu!" His form changed in a puff of smoke to the first thing he thought of – his Sexy Jutsu form. Two of the instructors squawked, and Iruka facepalmed. Naruto's eyes widened. _Clothes!_ Wincing, he did the jutsu again, and this time he appeared with his normal outfit on.

"That's, ahem, _two_ successful uses of the Transformation Jutsu," Iruka said, clearing his throat. "Now, your Substitution Jutsu."

"Substitution Jutsu!"

He swapped places with a conveniently placed log, cheering inside when he appeared across the room in a puff of smoke.

Each instructor hummed and wrote something down on their clipboard. Iruka nodded. "Success. Now… We would like you to demonstrate your Clone Jutsu. Please create three clones."

Naruto took a deep breath, trying to focus. He couldn't overextend, couldn't take too much of the energy or it would explode, and he _had_ to pass because otherwise everyone would hate him even more and Shikamaru wouldn't be his friend anymore. Iruka watched him supportively. What if he disappointed Iruka? _Dog, boar, ram._ "Clone Jutsu!"

The clone popped into existence, but it wasn't right. It was twisted and distorted and misshaped, a grotesque reflection of Naruto. There was only one. Naruto stared at it in panic.

Iruka sighed. "I'm sorry, Naruto. You've failed the Clone Jutsu."

"What? No. I can try again, I can do it better-" Naruto protested, his clone dispelling.

One of the other instructors shook his head and flipped a page on his clipboard, dismissing Naruto. Iruka sighed, giving Naruto a hard look. "It's not just your clone, Naruto," Iruka said. "You failed your written exam, too, although you did manage to score a fifty percent. Your shuriken jutsu was subpar. Your progression for a student your age has been remarkable, Naruto, and I'm proud of you, but the simple truth is the Academy prepares ninja for life in the field, and if you can't produce a simple clone, you aren't ready. I'm sorry."

Naruto panicked, waving his arms. "Wait, Iruka-sensei! You've got it all wrong, dattebayo! I'm ready, I promise, I can-"

"You fail."

Freezing, going cold, Naruto wavered in the center of the classroom. Everything around him seemed to grow impossibly large – the instructors towered over him like giants and the shadows loomed like mountains. Unbeknownst to him, a certain malevolent being sealed into his navel opened a single, crimson eye in interest. Giving Iruka a look of betrayal, Naruto half-pleaded, half-growled, "I _can_ make a clone, Iruka-sensei. Just watch. Clone Jutsu!"

Iruka stretched out a hand, eyes widening. "Naruto, no!"

Naruto drew on his chakra too hard – took far too much – and expelled it from his body, trying to coalesce it into a clone. He failed. He lost control.

BOOM.

The world went white.

::

Sakura walked home with her hands in her pockets, deep in thought. Dark had fallen over the civilian quarter, and the streets were filled with people heading home for the night. She couldn't find it in herself to give the familiar faces a smile. All she could think about was her goal: becoming strong. Becoming a kunoichi. Changing the fundamental parts of herself that stubbornly refused to change.

Proving Sasuke wrong. She was _not_ pathetic.

"Did you hear what they're saying about the Academy?" a passing woman asked her friend.

"Oh, yes," her friend replied. "The demon brat finally snapped and blew up a classroom! Hospitalized two people. He should be expelled from the village, I'll say…"

Sakura frowned. The Academy explosion had been the talk of their class, even though nobody seemed to know the culprit. _It can't be Naruto,_ Sakura thought. _He's stupid but he's not_ that _stupid. Also he was in class the next day and he didn't look exploded._

 _He does like destroying things, though,_ Inner pointed out. _He probably tried to pull some stupid prank!_

 _You're right! Naruto, you idiot!_

 _We should punch him!_

 _He does deserve a good deck to the head, doesn't he? Propositioning me in class…_

Parents pulled their children away from Sakura with hushed looks as she held up a fist, stalking down the road in a haze of rage.

The social landscape of their class had changed since Sakura had defeated Sasuke in their practice spar. Some of Sasuke's mystique seemed to have been lost, between his defeat and his attack on Sakura, reducing his pack of fangirls to a fraction of their quarter number. The mania was broken. The girls in their year made the miraculous discovery that other people could be just as interesting – namely, each other – and the class suddenly had a lively and varied social scene. It was a stark change.

Ino was back to being Sakura's full-time best friend, and they had attracted a group of mostly Ino's friends. Sakura sat with them in class and read, but she couldn't make witty banter about her latest obscure discovery. Ino and her friends babbled about boys and makeup and clothes, things which interested Sakura but no longer felt _important_. She did her exercises and tried to participate – but there was a void.

She missed Sasuke. She missed having his blunt dismissals and his incredulous skepticism and his withdrawn, curt commentary. She missed having someone to talk at in class, a person who questioned her and pushed her and didn't tolerate her bullshit. She missed her _friend_ Sasuke.

Sakura hadn't realized Sasuke had been her friend until he wasn't anymore.

 _"You're pathetic."_

She wanted to distance herself from him, rip him out of the fabric of her life. Sakura hated how from the moment she'd caught sight of his pretty face her life had revolved around Sasuke Uchiha. But now he drove her in a different way. Revolve it did.

A hand reached out and snagged her jacket, pulling her off the street into a dark alleyway. Sakura yelped, reaching for her chakra, ready to scream rape, when she found herself inches away from Sasuke.

Sasuke released Sakura, and she scrambled back, her back hitting the building behind her. Sasuke's expression was the opposite as after their spar, filled with emotion, anger and sadness and hate and fear. Something more. He had been crying. Advancing on Sakura, Sasuke stood silently before her, saying nothing, and Sakura, after deciding not to scream for help, stilled and watched him, waiting for a reaction.

When nothing came, Sakura blinked back her emotion and glared at Sasuke. "What do you want?"

"You beat me," Sasuke whispered angrily. "How?"

"How? _How_? You know how," Sakura hissed, trying not to cry. "You watched me work on it every day in class. I know you see me training outside of school and exercising in the morning. Don't play dumb and pretend you don't pay attention to me."

"You _can't_ beat me," Sasuke said. "You're weak. You have no reason to be able to beat me."

 _Weak._ Sakura closed her eyes, unable to stop herself from crying. "Go away, Sasuke," she mumbled. "I don't wanna date you anymore, okay? If I'm weak and pathetic then go and bother someone else worth your time."

A long silence. "Hn."

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" Screaming with rage, Sakura shoved Sasuke hard. He stumbled back and hit the building behind him, until both he and Sakura were pressed against the walls of houses, face to face with the stone alleyway in between. Sasuke stared at Sakura with wide eyes, and Sakura glared at him.

Sasuke kept staring.

"I thought you were my friend," Sakura said.

He opened his mouth. Closed it. His eyes grew even more desperate, but Sakura had no idea what they were trying to say. Sasuke stepped away from the wall, a hand lingering on the plaster, halfway between trying to reach out to Sakura and run away; he wore his Uchiha crest shirt like always and blended into the night, the moon catching his pale face. In his anguish he was beautiful. Silent.

Sakura turned on her heel. "That's what I thought."

She started to walk away.

"Wait."

Inner screamed for Sakura to leave. Sakura turned around.

Sasuke met Sakura's eyes, coming to the mouth of the alleyway. "Train with me."

She didn't know what she'd expected to come out of Sasuke's mouth, a thousand hopes warring in her head, hopes and fears and angers, all spinning out into their own fantasies, visions of domestic tranquility and bloody combat and little moments, each representing everything she had built Sasuke up to be in her mind, the boy she loved and hated and liked as a friend, but it wasn't that. "What?"

"I can't be weak," Sasuke said. He stepped forward, his eyes still locked on Sakura's, and Sakura felt a shiver run up her spine. "You know something I don't, and I have to know it too. You- You're not like the rest of them, okay? I _tolerate_ you."

 _Stupid idiot._ Sakura's lip trembled. "I don't wanna be _tolerated_. Haven't I earned better than that?"

Sasuke withdrew into himself, and for a moment, Sakura was afraid he would say no. When Sasuke spoke it was a whisper. "You aren't pathetic. I can't do the chakra exercises you do and I don't know why. They're hard. I need… help. I can help you too. So you're less weak."

It was the sweetest thing Sasuke had ever said to Sakura, which was a depressing thought. There was no apology.

Sakura knew she should walk away. Sasuke had _destroyed_ her in her moment of greatest triumph, and she was done with him. She was done with his pretty face and his moodiness and his tsundere friendship. He was cruel and dismissive of her and she hated him and she'd _beaten_ him, reached a point in her life where she could put him behind her.

But she couldn't. Because Sasuke was Sakura's north star. Her compass rose.

She loved him.

"Okay."

::

The swing creaked back and forth in the wind. Shikamaru watched from a distance as Naruto kicked his legs back and forth, head hung, oblivious to the stream of children exiting the Academy.

 _I shouldn't._

He could have helped Naruto. He could have helped him passed the test. He could have been a better friend. He could have let Naruto into his life with open arms, rather than having the blond worm his way in one painful interaction at a time. He could have spoken out at the hatred Naruto faced in the street. He could have gone to his father about Naruto's situation. There were so many things Shikamaru could have done to help his most confusing friend that he hadn't.

He hadn't acted then. He could now.

"Naruto?"

Naruto didn't look up. "Hi, Shikamaru," he said, blue eyes trained on the ground. "Bet you've heard about how I screwed up, huh?"

"Only you could have blown up the Academy," Shikamaru said, shrugging. "I could have guessed. But, yeah. I heard."

"Oh. Right."

Creak. Creak. Creak.

"My father says that I should be more observant," Shikamaru said, careful to keep his tone as disinterested as possible. "I think it's a drag, having to be focused in class all the time. But I know that you're a better ninja than they all say you are. We haven't even started jutsu yet, and you already can do two. I wish I were allowed to work ahead like that."

Naruto perked up a bit at that. "You do?"

 _What am I doing?_ "I do," he agreed. "My clan has a particular view about the world, and I… I see what they see. It's like all of life is a big strategy. A game. Like shogi."

"What's shogi?" Naruto asked.

"Nevermind that. What I'm saying is I…" Shikamaru trailed off, sticking his hands in his pockets, trying to come up with something to say. "I'm sorry. You're my friend. Friends help friends. If Choji needed something I would help him, and I feel like I should help you too."

Naruto looked up at Shikamaru, sniffling, his eyes filling with hope. "Really, dattebayo?"

 _He could be strong. But strength has to be_ tapped _._ Shikamaru watched Naruto, his expression conveying nothing, even as the tumult in his mind came to a head. He didn't want to stand by passively. He didn't want to watch the clouds turn and do nothing to mark their passing. He didn't want to let his friend fail again, not when he could see that there was _something_ within Naruto waiting to bloom.

Shikamaru made his decision.

"Like I said, I'm no help with the jutsu. But…" He shrugged. "I can help with the written stuff. And your taijutsu, I can think of a couple ways you could get better. I can figure out anything, really, if you give me enough to work with. Maybe we can make your clones stop exploding."

"Really?" Naruto asked. "You'll do all that for me?"

Sighing, Shikamaru nodded. Naruto was so earnest, like a puppy. Why did he have to be so troublesome? "Yeah," Shikamaru said. "I will.

"Awesome!" All of his troubles forgotten, Naruto jumped off the swing and started running around, cheering and shouting and making a general ruckus, earning him more than a few angry glances from passerbys. Shikamaru watched him, unable to stop himself from smiling. He'd done the right thing, he thought.

Naruto deserved to graduate early. He would be a powerful ninja, and Shikamaru would do his village a service by helping him get there.

 _I won't sit on the sidelines anymore._

Shikamaru's destiny might have been decided from his birth, but Naruto was untethered by fate. He was full of limitless possibility.

A fleeting moment of envy passed in the blink of an eye.

::

 **[A/N] Ten-year-olds are so dramatic.**

 **Sakura runs headfirst into the emotional brick wall that is Sasuke Uchiha and accidentally knocks a few screws loose. Sakura's psychology is something I'm very interested to explore, since it's one of the few interesting canon aspects of her character. Sasuke, of course, is emotionally constipated, and his idea of apologizing is by confronting his friends in dark alleyways. What a pair of beans.**

 **Anyways many thanks are in order. Thank you for three hundred follows, guys! Thank you to Ezeakel, Pat123, Orange222, ellainaparker, wubbzy, cheekiserval, TorioWint, MindForgedMan, RustingKnight, Gen Malaise, and two guests for reviewing. And, finally, an extra special thanks to Awlric Hayell for adding Hidden Path to the community Mimir's Well – you drove a _ton_ of traffic to this story, and I am much obliged.**

 **I'm playing fast and loose with Naruto canon here – there's a _ton_ to work with so I've got wiggle room. I have a vision here and a plan, and I get a lot of enjoyment when I swing back around to this every few months. There'll be two more chapters in Academy, then we'll move on to Genin. **

**Cheers, Allie**


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